by Nayana Morag

Think back to the last time you smelled lavender or citrus
blooms dancing in the air. Not only was it a pleasant smell, but it also invoked a certain emotion or memory, didn’t it?

Essential oils are an effective and gentle answer to many of today’s common equine problems and although not an alternative to proper veterinary care, they can often bring relief where allopathic medicines hold no answer. Chronic skin conditions, allergies, arthritis, Cushing’s Syndrome, stress related conditions and behavioral problems are just a few of the conditions that respond to essential oils. To use them successfully, however, it’s important to understand how these “gifts from nature” work.

What are essential oils and how do they work?
Essential oils are distilled from various plants and have many functions within those plants. Some attract insects for pollination, some repel them, and certain ones even protect the plant from bacterial infection and help close up wounds. It’s not much of a stretch to see how these properties can be used in the same way for animals.

Because of the volatile nature of the oils, their molecules evaporate into the air as soon as the lid comes off the bottle. When we or our horses smell them, their chemical constituents are absorbed via the olfactory system, into the limbic system of the brain. This is where emotions, memory and certain regulatory functions of the body are situated. When inhaled, the oils trigger neurotransmitters that can reduce pain, cause sedation, stimulation, or calmness, and help balance the body.

It is widely accepted these days that our emotional state influences our physical state; stress suppresses the immune system and laughter supports healing. Essential oils work simultaneously on the emotional and physical level. Oils that calm angry inflammations of the skin, for instance, can also calm ‘temper tantrums’. So as a physical condition clears, the animal’s disposition changes too.

First principle is the horse’s choice
Essential Oil Therapy for Animals (EOTA) differs from human aromatherapy in that massage is not the main form of application. EOTA recognizes that animals have an innate ability to self-medicate. In a natural environment horses will pick out the herbs they need to maintain a healthy system. So, although a qualified therapist will advise which oils would be helpful, it is always the animal that has the final say.

Using essential oils with horses
When treating a specific horse, a trained therapist first takes a detailed case history in order to understand all the emotional and physical factors that might have contributed to the horse’s present condition. The therapist may also use kinesiology to assess any imbalances in the animal’s system and to find up to three oils that will re-balance it. Kinesiology is a bio-feedback system developed by an American chiropractor. It’s based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, which assesses the quality of energy in the meridian systems and reveals any underlying imbalances. It’s a truly holistic system that can go straight to the root of a problem. Many times illness or problematic behaviors are triggered by a past incident, and a careful consultation, coupled with kinesiology, can reveal the original source of this problem so that appropriate oils can be selected.