We Ride Sport and Trail Magazine March 2017 | Page 20

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Herbal Worming Recipe

Parasites will not live in a healthy digestive system/immune system.

What affects your horse's digestive system and immune system? Everything you put into his/her mouth, including feed especalily feeds high in sugar & starch, GMO feeds, over use of chemical wormer's and medication (and stress).

I wrote an article for Ireland's horse and pony magizine with my friend Christophe Mouze http://macallafarm.ie and we talked about a small worm burden not causing problems (200 eggs per gram or less) this can even stimulate the immune system to encourage resistance to heavier burdens, never under- estimate the power of the immune system, but of course the immune sytem needs to be healthy.

Worms are now becoming totally resistant to chemicals, and there are no new chemicals being developed, what is happening now is double dose's of chemical wormer's are being administered and daily de-worming is being reccommed with horrific consequences.

So what do you do?

Number 1. Good parture mangement is key- collecting manuare daily, this will help break the life cycle of the parasites.

Number 2. Fecal egg counts every 3 months; Fecal counts will help give you an idea what is happening in your horse's body. why would you de-worm your horse when you do not even know if your horse has a large worm burden or not?

Number 3. Mixed grazing with other animals, also reduce the number of horses per acre.

immune system healthy by avoiding GMO feeds, chemicals and stress. incorprating sprouted seeds into the diet will bump up antioxidants in the diet.

Number 4. Keep your horses digestive system and immune system healthy by avoiding GMO feeds, chemicals and stress. incorprating sprouted seeds into the diet will bump up antioxidants in the diet.

Number 5. Resting your pasture if possible.

Number 6. De-worm using the cycles of the moon. Parasites are most active during the full moon, so that's the best time to zap them. Look up full moons for 2016 write them on your calender and schedule your programme aroud them.

Note on food grade Diatomaceous Earth- used as part of an natural parasite programme, alot of people say they dont feel it works well. DE needs to be feed on a continious basis and it must be feed in accordance with the horses weight, an 1,000lb horse could need up to 1 cup per day for 60 days, then fecal samples need to be re-done.

This is the most basic, simple homemade herbal wormer that is used in a holstic manner.

The Recipe

600 g fresh organic garlic

48 oz (6 cuups) organic cold pressed olive oil

250 g dried wormwood

400g soaked pumpkin seed soaked for 12 hours in cold water.

This recipe makes enough for 3 horses. See step by step instruction on the next page.

*New addations to this recipe include 150g of ground fennel seed and 100g ground cloves

For more information contact Rachel at [email protected]

Website: www.equineherbalist.ie

Facebook: @equineherbalist