Anyone tried feeding horses herbal tea???!

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el_Snowflakes

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Hi all,

I was recently recommended to try giving my horse dandelion tea to help with kidney function. I have been making her a cup each night (in boiling water then cooled of course) and pouring it into her automated water drinker bowl making sure its quite diluted so the smell/strong taste doesnt put her off. However I am worried that she might not like the smell/taste and will refrain from drinking....what do you think? its hard to tell is she has drank from the drinker! anyone else tried this?

thanks;)
 
I feed herbs straight into their feeds.

It is quicker to get into their system though if you steep them in hot water first and then add it all to the feed.

Herbs are therapeutic but also add taste to the feeds;)

This a good site for info
http://www.equinatural.co.uk/epages...tPath=/Shops/BT3755/Categories/How_Herbs_Work

and this is a cheap place to get herbs from
http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/index.php

Other good detoxing herbs are nettle, clivers/cleavers, burdock root (if it's in root form, you need to heat them and break them down first).

I am also a big fan of Cat's Claw as a general tonic.
 
I really wouldn't be putting anything in the auto drinkers I'm afraid, like you said if she didn't like it she could just refuse to drink, which with kidney issues wouldn't be good.

You could either give her a bucket as well, maybe 1/3 full of water and then the herbal tea added if you want to give her the choice (I always do this with electrolytes if my horse has sweated hard).

If you want to make sure she has it can you add it to her feed?
 
It's also interesting to note that horses are really good at self medicating.

Feral horses have been observed to seek certain herbs and plants.

Domestic horses - if you leave bowls of certain herbs - they will pick what they want.

I didn't order any dandelion last time I ordered herbs (I change what they get each season and mix it all in a big barrel).

When I took my old boy for a walk up the road, he grazed on the hedgerow and actively chose to eat all the dandelion leaves he could find.

So I got on the net when I got home and ordered him some:)
 
thanks for all your replies :D

My mare doesnt get a feed as I need to watch her weight. Do you think i could just offer the contents of the dandelion tea bag? and yes she would probably eat it- this is the horse who eats bananas with the skins on lol ;)
 
Can you mix the contents of the tea bag in with a handful of chaff? There are plenty of low-calorie chaffs that offer the same energy as hay, so you could give her one less handful of hay and a bit of chaff to get the dandelion down? Look for a bag that says 'suitable as a hay replacer' and has a laminitis stamp on it. I did this for mine when I first took his shoes off and he developed a desire for rosehips. I gave him a handful of mollichaff calmer with dried rosehips in.
You could try to mix the brewed dandelion tea with one of Allen and Page's 'sloppy' feeds - L-Mix is really low calorie and so is Fast Fibre. When you make these up you add 1 scoop water to 1 scoop of feed so it makes a mush which is very low calorie.
 
elsazzo said:
thanks for all your replies :D

My mare doesnt get a feed as I need to watch her weight. Do you think i could just offer the contents of the dandelion tea bag? and yes she would probably eat it- this is the horse who eats bananas with the skins on lol ;)
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You could try the tea in a bucket then, but I wouldn't add it to the auto drinker.

Or you could mix into a small amount of umolassed base.

Don't rely on The Laminitis Trust for safe feeds. The companies buy the right to use that logo. They count some really unsuitable feeds under their umbrella and provide dubious, outdated advice themselves.
 
CatStew said:
^ is there a chance she could be diabetic then?

To be honest, I think she's just greedy! :D
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She probably just likes the taste :)

Self medicating isn't a science - just an observation of behaviour.

Otherwise I am perplexed as to how Polo mints have been 'medicating' for years
lol.gif
 
Thanks again for all your replies :)

Im reluctant to feed her anything as she really doesnt need it :p so I have been opening a herbal teabag each night and shes been eating the contents from my hand- like a wee treat for her!
 
Can I ask is there any herbs horses can't have.

I have various herbal bags from when I went through a phase of drinking loads of herbal tea so I bought the dried herbs loose from health shop.

I have since decided I prefer them in bags so herbs just sat in cupboard.

I would like to offer them to horses but first want to know if any of dangerous for example fennel seeds? Dill? Was sure mother in law told me fennel plants were poisionous....?
 
The self medicating part previously raised in a previous post is important. Plant remedies should be chosen by the horse, self selecting whether they want to just enhale, lick or eat them. What they fancy resolving pain/anxiety/stress etc one day may be different to the next. Dena Schwartz who writes in Horsemanship magazine is really interesting to listen to (she was at your horse live this year) I was explaining to her I agreed about the natural medication and was going to be getting lavender to spray on my gloves before trimming the nervous rescue ponies, this is when i learnt its best to let horses choose their solution for it to work best. She's doing some one day courses, I'm going on one and hoping to buy a pack of some of the key anxiety plant remedies so that I have them to hand if working with any nervous animals (and possibly even humans) I guess I'll find out after the course. Her website is: www.animalaromatherapy.co.uk A speaker from the Equine Sciences Academy Marikie van de water has a easy and interesting book, not sure what articles he has on her website which is Rivas remedies, she's canadian and has created some solutions such as a calm one.

Best wishes
Hannah
 
I suffered from anxiety and depression a few years back. Before I went onto conventional meds I tried herbal remedies, including Rescue Remedy, Kalms and various other herbal stuff which I fail to remember now. The Rescue Remedy gave me fantastic nightmares, the Kalms did nothing, and the rest of the stuff did even more of nothing apart from waste my money! Oh and I also tried numerous herbal teas which did bugger all.

I have to say I did like my microwave beanie bag with lavender in though to heat my feet at night in the winter! :)
 
elsazzo said:
BUMP-ing as I'm interested too to find out if there are any no no herbs ;)
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I have been looking into Comfrey leaf for broken bones and it seems Comfrey root is a no no.

I do like your idea of feeding teabag contents as treats, much healthier than the polos mine insist are medicinal!
 
There's a little book by compass books ? (I think) that has all the plants you can and can't feed to horses, you can get it on amazon very cheaply.
Second dena schwarz, she's very knowledgable and lovely, watching her with horses is amazing :)
My boy went mad for cow parsley(relaxer) and willow(aspirin) last year
 
I once gave my pony some normal with milk and she liked it but do you think that it might be bad for her? :confused::confused:
I think that mint or sweet clover tea would be fine but the horses might not like it.:):D:(:):D:(
 
littlescallywag said:
There's a little book by compass books ? (I think) that has all the plants you can and can't feed to horses, you can get it on amazon very cheaply.
Second dena schwarz, she's very knowledgable and lovely, watching her with horses is amazing :)
My boy went mad for cow parsley(relaxer) and willow(aspirin) last year
Click to expand...

Whats the book called?
 
Really interesting thread!
I want to overseed my resting pasture with a herb mix so that the girls can graze and select the herbs the want. My paddocks took an absolute battering last summer as they are very exposed and burnt off horribly.
The 2 seed mixtures I have found so far include:

*Int perennial Ryegrass
*Perennial Ryegrass
*Timothy
*Creeping Red Fescue
*Meadow Fescue
*Chewings Fescue
*Cocksfoot
*Rough Meadowgrass
*Burnet
*Chicory
*Parsley
*Ribgrass
*Yarrow

The other mix contains just Burnet, chicory, parsley, ribgrass and yarrow.

My paddocks have yarrow in them, and some wild flowers that although I havent named, I have made sure they arent poisonous to horses, they also have dandelion and buttercups (and to my chargrin ragwort :( which I obv pull) so I just want to add to the diversity!
Are either of those mixes any good??x
 
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