Can horses self-select??
How often do you hear that a horse owner has gone for a walk with their horse and the horse pulls them towards the grass and starts eating dandelions, meadow sweet, daisies or other herbs.
Horse owners think that the horse is self-selecting. But is this true….?
Or is the horse just bored, hungry, curious, does it have a boring paddock with only a limited selection of grasses and plants? If this is so and they do not have a lot of options, then they will often eat anything they happen upon.
When a horse eats a certain herb then this can also mean that they just like the taste of it.
If you dry some nettle leaf and give it to a herd of horses then most of them will eat it, not necessarily because of the medicinal benefits that the plant has. So it does not mean that the horse in this case is self-selecting.
Horses will always prefer hay that is high in sugar content to one that is low in sugar. In the pasture they will prefer plants infected with endophytes (they obviously taste better, despite endophytes being toxic for horses in larger amounts). Some horses will eat anything, even poisonous plants. Eating poisonous plants can sometimes indicate that the horse has a metabolic issue.
Some of these horses with a sugar-addiction will eat anything as long as it tastes sweet, but refuse any kind of herb that is not sweet but may taste bitter or sour. Even though they might need the medicinal properties of this plant!
Especially horses with gastric ulcers are picky eaters and will not willingly eat anything that tastes foreign or strange.
Most domesticated horses have access to `boring grass paddocks`, hay with a high sugar content or even worse, haylage. Sweet feeds such as muesli`s, mash and pellets. And horse owners will also add in some carrots or apples.
So these horses will have a sweet tooth and will have difficulties eating pure minerals and vitamins or a balancer feed without sugar, starch and molasses in it.
Did you know that foals that live in the wild will not even touch a carrot because they don’t know it…
Wild horses
Wild horses that grow up in their herd will learn from their mother regarding what they can and should not eat. They usually stay with their family for 2-3 years and always within the same area where they know the plants. However, the domesticated horses are weaned at 6 months, grow up on grass-only-pastures and have nobody to learn herbs from. Horses, too, can learn poisonous plant when they eat them and feel sick afterwards. With most plants on our pastures this works without a problem, but we don’t have plants here that are so highly toxic that just by trying them, the horse will die.
Herbs are hip and healthy
Nowadays there are a lot of Companies selling feed with `herbs` in it. Or companies selling bags of herbs, powders and oils. You can order herbs online and feed it to your horse without having any knowledge or experience and without getting advice from the company that sell the herbs.
There is also the concept to buy products and let the horse self-select what they want.
You let the animal smell an oil, powder or herb and watch their response, such as flehmen (helps open the vomer nasal organ). But when horses use this organ it does not mean that they `select` the offered herb.
I see horses smell horse droppings (dung) and they flehm by using the vomer nasal. Does this mean they are self-selecting the droppings….? The answer is NO.
They use this organ to estimate the physical condition of the horse who owns these dropping. And they can do the same with plants. This way they can detect chemical compounds. Which does not mean that they also need these chemicals.
For example. If you have several herbs that the horse can select but the horse is picky and does not like bitter herbs but you know that this horse has gut issues and bitter herbs can be beneficial.
The horse refuses to self-select and eat these herbs or other therapeutic feeds, but these herbs are beneficial in this case. What do you do? Stick to the fact that the horse is not eating herbs that are actually beneficial to him but he is not self-selecting them so it is fine….? And instead letting him eat herbs that he likes but are not helping him?
Or do you „force“ them by hiding it in other feed or just putting it into their mouth with a syringe and then see if the horse starts to get better.
If you choose to let the horse self-select, then you should do this correctly and you should have more than 50 different herbs to offer them, because that is what they have access to in the wild. Besides this you should offer it to them every day and not randomly, because herbs are slow medicine and need some time to work.
It is also wise to gain knowledge about horse health, such as how the digestive tract works, the function of the liver and kidneys, what is and what is not healthy food for horses, gain more knowledge about each herb that you offer, know about contraindications, side effects, toxicity, interactions with medication and other herbs.
Also it’s important to keep track of what your horse is selecting and know why they are selecting this and what it is good for.
Not many horse owners will have the time, knowledge, patience or finances to offer this to their horse.
Besides this, herbs are not completely harmless! Some herbs cannot be given to pregnant or suckling mares.
Some herbs cannot be given when horses are on a certain medication.
Some herbs are illegal in sports, some herbs can be harmful when used long term and some herbs should not be given to horses that already have a metabolic issue.
So why do these Companies sell these products?
The answer is easy, they sell it just because of business and wanting to make money! They respond to what the market is asking for.
Do not get me wrong, herbs are beneficial and they belong as part of the diet of a horse. But does your domesticated horse really know what it needs?
And what if you let the horse self-select but the horse still gets hay or haylage that has a high sugar content or if the horse is still on `boring` grass then the horse will not benefit from the herbs for the full 100%.
The Horse Therapist has a holistic approach to herbs, supplements and food and looks at the total management of the horse.
We use our knowledge, experience and test the horses by using the bio tensor to find out what the horse needs. But we are careful about letting horses decide what is best for them.
We take several aspects into account and based on all of this information and testing we offer a custom made herbal mix and give a custom made nutrition plan.
We also offer online courses to learn more about horse health, the digestive tract and offer customers to ask any question that they have. Which will be answered by Dr. Christina Fritz who is an experienced kinesiologist for horses and a Dr in Biology, animal physiology and neurobiology.
In summary
Do wild animals self-medicate? I would say the answer is a qualified “yes.”
But feeding your domesticated horse herbs or letting horses `self-select` is playing roulette.
I would not fully trust domesticated horses to know exactly what is good for them. The self-selecting might work for healthy horses with a well-developed instinct (like a mustang), but not for metabolically ill horses or those that never had the chance to learn from their mothers.
Source reference
https://thehorse.com/150430/flehmen-response-in-horses/
https://skeptvet.com/Blog/2016/10/the-natural-nonsense-that-is-applied-zoopharmacognosy/