ASK THE HERBALIST A QUESTION:

Ex race horse's behaviour:
I've been chatting with some other horse people about my ex race horse's behaviour. Many of them suggested I try a herbal calming remedy.To give you some background on him. I purchased him last July he raced up until the month before. He had a successful racing career but either no longer had the desire or the ability to win anymore so he was retired. He chewed the place apart when he came last July but has settled a lot since then and that habit has subsided. He grinds his teeth when he is stressed, again that has decreased a lot. He is having a hard time settling into the new place, we've been here a week now. Our two horses are kept apart from the other four horses at this place for now. They have been getting to know each other over the fence. We will be integrating them into the herd probably this next week. Our mare came into heat almost on arrival; there are four other geldings here. So we thought we would wait until her hormones calm down before we introduce our horses to the herd. My TB gelding is quite herd bound to our mare who he has been with constantly since last July. So he is hard to handle when she is out of site. I have started dealing with that anxiety by bringing him into the barn about an hour before she gets to come in the evening. Then he has to stay in for an hour when she gets turned out in the morning. He is getting better handling that. He was ridden yesterday by a experienced horse woman who did some retraining on him for me last summer. He reared several times on her and had a hard time settling. He had a very hard time just standing still and being quiet. But there was some good that came out of the hour he was ridden. She doesn't loose her cool or get rattled by his behaviour. He had very little riding due to the severe cold we had. So I new he would have a hard time with his first couple of rides.

I think he deserves a new career/life as my trail/dressage mount. I am in no hurry to show him this year but I would like to start to enjoy him and not be worried about my safety. He is 15.3 hh, probably 11-1200 lbs, has a good appetite and doesn't have any trouble keeping weight on. He receives about a cup of grain a day and a cup of pelleted mineral-EZ Rider high stepper, and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil drizzled in it.

Do you have a solution to help calm his behaviour so he can start to realize that he can get to a relaxed state? "

HERBALIST REPLY:
Of course, his main area of concern is his gut. If the flora is in balance he can produce all his B vitamins as needed. Right now he can't. So here are a few suggestions:

a. choose an appropriate probiotic (eg fastrack, gut)
b. feed extra minerals and b vitamins (eg hoffman's equine mineral)
c. add astragalus for the energy flow balance and immune system
d. there is a homeopathic calmer that you put 10 drops into one ounce of water and syringe into his mouth if things get really stressed
e. investigate the RED LIGHT COLD LASER TORCH to get his energy flow back into balance (there are acupuncture points to help them calm) a treatment works in about 30 minutes. You can learn how to do this yourself and it is such a wonderful tool with so many possibilities. (can be used on humans, dogs, cats)

Each horse will vary in terms of needing support for the liver, pituitary, thyroid, adrenals or immune system so we can tailor make a program for you as a therapeutic balancing program, initially that will eventually become a
maintenance program in 3-4 months. And after a while he will be a different horse. Kind, loving, happy and relaxed.