We use cookies to make your experience better. To comply with the new e-Privacy directive, we need to ask for your consent to set the cookies. Learn more.
How horses can heal themselves
It’s something that scientists have been trying to explain for a long time and is called zoopharmacognosy. In spite of its rather complicated name, zoopharmacognosy is simply a science that studies how animals naturally self-medicate (to heal themselves) by foraging for plants in their natural surroundings and their essential oils, along with other plant extracts and natural materials (such as clay or mud) in captivity.
Part of the hedgewitch ethos is to encourage you to try some simple zoopharmacognosy with your own horse.
There are real benefits from learning to read your horse’s body language, not least your horse begins to understand that he can communicate with you and suddenly has a ‘voice’ – it really is a whole new language! You’ll start to notice your horse trying to tell you things…
a whole new language.
Essential info'
There’s no need to know the many properties of every oil when offering them to horses. In fact, it’s sometimes better to have no preconceptions and look up the properties after your horse has chosen them. You may think you know what your horse needs but you don’t, he does!
As an example, often the cause of a problem is emotional. If your horse gets anxious when he’s left alone, you may think he wants some oils known to help anxiety. What he may actually chose are oils which help him get over being separated from his mother at weaning, the cause of his anxiety
The one golden rule is never force an oil on a horse. Always give them the freedom to move away.
Hedgewitch can supply you with a small number of quality essential oils which are popular with horses but recommend a consultation with a qualified applied zoopharmacognosy practitioner to offer your horse a full range of essential oil and plant extracts to fully address the needs of your horse. To find out more please contact us via the contact form.
Hedgewitch also offer a select range of high quality essential oils for those who would like to discover the magic of offering essential oils to their horses. For more information on the essential oils we have in stock take a look here - essential oils