Essential Oils and Trauma Release in Horses

When I took the lid off the bottle of Linden Blossom absolute to offer it to a pony who had had an accident, it was their stable mate in the next stall who reacted incredibly strongly.

Merry whinnied in a very loud, forceful, desperate way, the way I’d known horses whinny when they were separated from their herd or mares from their foals. It was a deafening blast, followed by nickers of affection. She was leaning around, wanting to connect with her stable mate, who she was normally incredibly aloof with. She reached out to touch her nose to her companion’s nose. This had never been witnessed before by their guardian.

What followed was a close succession of emotional releases. Merry shook her head, did a series of flehmens, coughed, vocalised loudly and nuzzled the air. She repeatedly reached out to the other pony for reassurance. It was very emotional to witness as we could both feel her need for emotional connection.

Just one sniff of Linden Blossom, had resulted in a pony being able to reach out after several years of being shut down. I wasn’t surprised because this was actually something I had seen many times before, where essential oils and absolutes could help to release trauma and help a horse to connect with people and other horses in a new way.

Elly, my pony who had been in a road traffic accident, reacted in a similar way when she first encountered Linden Blossom and Neroli essential oil. She was very shut down and hadn’t connected with the other horses in her field. After her first Applied Zoopharmacognosy session, Elly whinnied to the other horses on her way back to the field. She was greeted by a pony called Katy who went on to be her best friend. Katy sniffed Elly all over and then licked the Linden Blossom off Elly’s head where it had been topically applied. Katy then also did a series of flehmens and whinnied just like Elly and Merry, calling out to Elly and the rest of the herd.

I recently visited a small herd of horses who had all experienced physical trauma. They had been treated very unkindly in the past and were now in a safe home surrounded by kindness.

One of the mares, Cleo, was very keen to come and connect with the essential oils I had to offer. She was delighted with rose and yarrow, in particular. These oils offer emotional support and comfort and can help to aid gentle release of trauma.

With the rose oil she did a series of enormous yawns and flehmens. She rubbed her nose in the oil and there were big waves of emotional release, that as an empath and animal communicator, I could really feel in my heart.

As I was stroking some rose oil on her forehead, with Cleo’s permission, her guardian pointed out the dent in her skull which had been caused by a hammer blow. I didn’t know it was there until Cleo showed me and asked for an emotional support oil to be stroked over the site of the injury. What a thing for a horse to go through and what a miracle that she had regained her trust to allow her face to be touched. The rose oil is often self selected by animals who have feared touch from people and who are ready to release it and accept touch once again.

It's a good reminder that horses often have hidden pasts. When they come into our care, we may not always know their life story, or we may only know some of it. Because some of them live outside in fields, they can have experiences we are not aware of, even when they are in our care.

Horses can be traumatised by having to leave their Mum’s and go through a rapid weaning process. They can find it very stressful to leave a herd, to move home, to leave a guardian who they have bonded with and start again in a new environment. We may expect a lot from equines and that they will be able to make quick and seamless adjustments to a new set of circumstances.

This is one of the reasons that I think it’s so important to offer essential oils to horses via the process of self selection aka Applied Zoopharmacognosy. It can really help to support them emotionally and to gently release old and hidden traumas. It’s one of the nicest ways I can think of for a guardian to bond with a horse, a pony or a donkey.

If you’re curious about Applied Zoopharmacognosy you can find out more here or book in for a free discovery call with me to chat about your horse.

You may also like these blogs about Equine Applied Zoopharmacognosy: Amy, Elly, Lulu

If your animal has been traumatised, is nervous or anxious, please feel that you can reach out to me for advice and support.