Month: February 2014

HerbsLeave a comment

How much is enough

Catherine Bird

Working out the right amount of a herb or combination of herbs to give can depend on your intention. Why are you giving the herbs? Is it simply to address a physical issue? Is it to assist with a behaviour block? Are you addressing the spirit of the horse? Some people like to complicate the procedure by giving many herbs together. This is often out of anxiety in the hope they cover everything, or from their ego thinking how clever they are to have combined so many herbs. Sometimes we just love our horses “too much” and in our hope … Continue reading How much is enough

AromaLeave a comment

Essential Oils For the Young Ones

Catherine Bird

When using aromatherapy with foals, I have used them comfortably from one week old in my practice. I like the idea of allowing them to bond with their mother before introducing them to the foals olfactory nervous system, and then after that I have I have safely used them both for the scent reaction in their behavioural centres as well as physical application to muscle issues from the ‘trauma of birth’. My main rule of thumb if you are applying essential oils to a young horse, stick strictly to your 2.5% dilution, moreso as to not irritate their sensitive skin, … Continue reading Essential Oils For the Young Ones

Herbs, Thoughts - Mine and OthersLeave a comment

Travel Hints when Your Horse Doesn’t Want to Drink

Catherine Bird

Some horses don’t like to drink away from home. Suggestion 1 Add a teaspoon of celery seed to their feed the night before and when they are away – celery seed tends to make horse’s a little thirstier and encourages them to drink water. Suggestion 2 Flavour their water with a small bottle of apple juice – we have all drunk water from a different water tank and know it can taste different – the addition of this small amount of juice can mask that difference and be yummy. If you forget to take juice with you a splash of … Continue reading Travel Hints when Your Horse Doesn’t Want to Drink

AromaLeave a comment

Fighting Winter Bugs with Essential Oils

Catherine Bird

With the changeable weather, there are sniffles in the office as well as the stables, and the simple use of essential oils may just help keep some of those bugs at bay. This article was first published in Natural Horse Magazine volume 5, issue 1: Your horse’s body often gets compromised by microorganisms. Aromatherapy can be used to help your horse with any infection, however it is adjunctive to your horse’s veterinarian care, so the suggestions in this article are for your information and not to replace his advice. Microorganisms that cause disease are called pathogens and can include bacteria, … Continue reading Fighting Winter Bugs with Essential Oils

HerbsLeave a comment

Allergy thoughts

Catherine Bird

Allergies need a layered approach With the seasons not following their usual trend, the incidents of allergies seems to be rising on both sides of the equator. Identify and Eliminate If the trigger is environmental it may be hard to eliminate. If your horse is sensitive to one of the components in the feed – eliminate those which could be the trigger. It will vary with each horse and sometimes going down to a basic diet and then rebuilding one part at a time can help too. Reactions to your emotions Some of your horse’s reactions can be to the … Continue reading Allergy thoughts

BodyworkLeave a comment

Horse Rub Hint

Catherine Bird

Is your horse giving you a hint as to where he needs you to massage? Ever thought your horse was trying to tell you something? If you scratch him he may move to where he really wants that scratch. If you miss this hint, and your horse rolls in dirt or sand, watch carefully. You may catch where his trying to put pressure himself. If you are lucky, when he stands up, the sand or dirt may have stuck to a few spots. Note this places before he shakes the dirt off. This is where he was trying to put … Continue reading Horse Rub Hint

PeopleLeave a comment

Featured Student – Suzanne Regnier-Tront

Catherine Bird

Suzanne Regnier-Tront I’ve been providing the equine aromatherapy correspondence course since 1998 and it is rewarding when someone develops an understanding they can then shape into their own ideas. Over the next few months I am going to feature some of the students of the course who have done this and today is Suzanne Regnier-Tront. Suzanne has developed an exciting approach with her mists. When Suzanne signed up for my equine aromatherapy course roughly 2 years ago, she confesses having no hot clue what aromatherapy was all about. The only thing at the time that had piqued her interest was … Continue reading Featured Student – Suzanne Regnier-Tront

Herbs1 Comment

Our fire and smoke summer

Catherine Bird

Where’s there is smoke The sort of scene Jade Ilana photographed coming towards her horse property in Victoria this weekend is not one anyone wants to sees. Fortunately the wind changed direction and Jade and her horses were safe. If your horse has been affected by smoke from bushfires near you, two herbs that are easy to get are chamomile and rosehips. This combination will help with associated stresses, not only soothing the nerves but also soothing all the mucus membranes in the respiratory and digestive systems. With both of these herbs, with most horses they are gentle in their … Continue reading Our fire and smoke summer

Herbs1 Comment

Making the Perfect Brew

Catherine Bird

With the convenience of teabags the art of making an infusion or decoction of herbs has been lost in some households. A herbal tea can be an infusion or a decoction. An infusion is made by pouring boiling water over dried or fresh herbs whilst a decoction is made by boiling in water harder plant substances such as bark and roots. The traditional proportion for an infusion is 30 gm of dried herb to 500 ml of water. You infuse this amount of herb for 15 minutes before drinking. There is no benefit in stewing your herbs, you will have … Continue reading Making the Perfect Brew

Thoughts - Mine and OthersLeave a comment

Hitting the right Note with your Horse

Catherine Bird

Socrates and Plato regarded music indispensable to the health of the Soul. I think most of us have heard of using music to soothe the savage beast and similar metaphors. This is only one use of music and in this article I would like to explore how we can use music to assist our competition animal with certain tasks and life situations as well as on deeper level where we can assist the utilisation of biochemistry. Music can be played to soothe our animals, help us connect with them on a different level when training for a dressage test with … Continue reading Hitting the right Note with your Horse

AromaLeave a comment

Does your horse like your scent?

Catherine Bird

When you first start offering essential oils to your horse, it may not be clear what the preferences are. With younger horses they may look like they are interested in every bottle you waft under their nose, you may find the only indicator is the strength of breath they take to get more of the scent they like. The horse in this pic got me very excited when he dropped his tongue out at the bottle. However his handler stated he did this all the time, be it when being groomed, riding or just ‘because’. He was clear though with … Continue reading Does your horse like your scent?