Page 21 - Autumn 20

Case 1
18-year-old Arab X cob horse
He coughs and has upper airway irritation. His breathing rhythm is increased and wheezy and the rib line is visible, when he breaths but the chest sounds fine. the owner is worried about him even though she is normally quite relaxed about her animals.
‘’Initially he was jealous of another horse called Gable. He perceived Gable as my favourite, it is because Gable was my horse, he was jealous. He would go at him with his teeth first. This horse has died now and he has taken his place, he likes being the favourite. He is not an aggressive leader for the horses (5 in total, living free in a large patch of grass); they follow him because they respect him. He is the one that goes forward when there is a problem. Actually he is not really a leader, the other horses follow him in case of trouble. He puts himself forward. When the horses break out of the field, he stays in the field and neighs at them.
When a new very naive mare, who did not know how to behave amongst horses, joined the herd, he chased her for 2 days to get her to take the place she was due in the herd. He did not give up until she was where she needed to be and then he did not bother with her anymore.
He has always been a bit scatty in his head: the mix of the Arab and the cob. But we used him for equine awareness training: he will reflect people’s emotions. He would really react to how people felt: he picks up what people need to know about themselves, he is so clever about it.
If he comes to me, I know there is some message, he is in- tuitive, he thinks outside the box, he is like a mirror of your emotions; he would mirror back what is going on with you. He cannot be in a stable; he would weave his head off. He has a stress trigger: when out of control, he does it, because he is caring and because he chooses to mirror your
emotions. He wants to help. It is almost as if he is concerned, when he cannot help.
The wheezy breathing started years ago after a vaccination. When he eats hay, he coughs. He did not like the Equine Breathing technique, he ran off (check on the web for Equinebreathing: quite effective technique to help with many conditions in horses). He is sensitive and clever, when he has had enough, he will swish his head and turn his bum to you for being scratched or he starts eating grass and totally ignores you.
When ridden out he is a bit worried about the unknown; he likes his comfort zone: the field he knows. He likes being in the centre of the attention and sometimes tries to make people laugh.
He is the only horse I know that will make eye contact with you across the field even over a long distance: it is an interest, what do you want? It is a connection. We can sit on him, when he is lying down.
We had him as a young horse. The person, who had him before us (experienced horse person) could not do anything with him. She had tried to break him in and failed. He was with his head in the clouds, a bit babyish with his feet all over the place. We waited till he was 5 years old to saddle him.’’
There was very little to repertorise with in this case.
The genuine helping, connection, care, the being a baby for a long time, still a bit worried out of his comfort zone, the jealousy... gave me the sense that he could very well benefit from a mammal mild remedy. But this needed to be an animal with some great depth and caring for the group. The ‘making of eye contact over a long distance’ made me think of it possibly being an elephant.
Lac-loxodonta-africana m 200C 2 doses.