Feeding cloves

[charlyan]

The girl who keeps her horse with mine adds a pinch of whole cloves to her boy's feed and he occasionally gets a few as a treat. He seems to love them.
Its not something I have ever come across before- how common is this?
Just curious if anyone else do this and is there any benefit to feeding cloves?

 

[Rainbowrider]

Hi, what sort of cloves are they?

 

[charlyan]

Whole dried cloves- the sort commonly used in cooking

 

[buttons845]

I was very interested to read this as I thought this very old and almost secret remedy had long died out.
In Scotland, those with the "Word" had loads of remedies and cloves was one of them. I believe they were given for resperatory problems and horses would only eat them if they needed them.
Where on earth did this surface from in the 21st century?

 

[spaniel]

I think they were also used as an expellent for intestinal parasites at one time.