In Our Hearts

Bolero

Bolero is a very handsome, intelligent horse with a problem. At 7 years old, his person couldn’t ride him or trust him. Whenever she put a bit in his mouth, he would become so agitated that he would flip himself over backwards. Once he broke his tail doing this. Touching his ears also created agitation and discomfort, as did asking him to do too much work from the ground. He is claustrophobic and spooks easily from loud noises, spinning and pulling back. He, of course, has a hard time dealing with a saddle, but with slow steady “routine”, his person was able to accomplish saddling. In short when Bolero panicked, he left his body and was not responsible for his actions.

Once, Bolero was sent away for training with a person who was known for dealing with high strung, difficult to train horses. The result was more weight loss and less trust of humans. Bolero is a “hard keeper” meaning it’s very hard to keep weight on him. If his person feeds him extra grain for weight, Bolero appears uncomfortable, although no definitive colics have been seen. He now had developed some soreness in his front right leg, showing an intermittent lameness. I was called out to see if he could be helped, as the person believed that underneath the freak out lived a sensitive intelligent and loving horse.

In Chinese Medicine, high level anxiety stems from an imbalance in the Heart and Heart Protector or Pericardium (sac surrounding the heart in western conventional medicine). The Heart and other fire organs, as they are known, direct one’s spiritual outlook and behavioral guidelines. When there is an imbalance here, it can affect other systems, such as the Stomach or Spleen/Pancreas, or Kidney, or Liver. From the history, I suspected the underlying problem stemmed from the fire organs and affected either the Kidney or Stomach. The Kidney in Chinese Medicine is associated with the emotion fear and the Stomach with worry.

After examining Bolero, I suspected that much of his unwanted behavior involved a stomach ulcer that he had developed and was probably very uncomfortable most of the time. This makes an individual operate on a “short fuse”. Since he wasn’t a mean horse, when stressed, Bolero went into a state of fear or worry, creating the behavioral problems. It is also of course possible that the worry and fear created the stomach ulcer in the first place. In either event, correcting the ulcer would relieve him of some discomfort. Additionally, the Stomach has a relationship with the gum line in the mouth, and the bit problem may stem from soreness in the gums.

The meridians, or energy pathways, involved with the Heart and Pericardium run along the inside of the front legs, and I suspected the intermittent lameness was the result of a blockage along these pathways.

I treated the Heart, Pericardium, Stomach, and Kidney using acupuncture and instructed the person to do acupressure along the coronet band on top of the hoof in order to keep the energy flowing. We put Bolero on an herbal combination to soothe the stomach, relieve the ulcer and calm the heart. His person and I also had a long discussion in Bolero’s presence (so that he could hear) about trust and wanting the best for him. Following the treatment and one week of the herbs and acupressure, Bolero seemed more confident and less flighty. He continued to improve as time went on.