Featured Product – Laminitis Prone Supplement

LOVE letting him out! Now with improved palatability.

Laminitis Prone Supplement provides the ideal nutritonal approach for horses at risk from feed-related Laminitis.

Almost all laminitis is nutritional in origin. Thus, poor digestion can often trigger the onset of painful and sometimes fatal inflammation of the laminae – laminitis. The condition results in toxins produced by ‘bad’ bacteria in the bowels leaking through to the blood. This causes damage and restricts the blood supply to the sensitive laminae in the feet.

With prevention being much better than a cure, Global Herbs have developed a Laminitis Prone Supplement to be used as a natural nutritional supplement for sensitive horses and ponies.

Laminitis Prone Supplement contains digestive herbs which perfectly and safely rebalance equine nutrition.

• Makes winter frosty grass safe
• Rebalances digestion
• Liver support
• Maintains utilisation of diet
• Maintains healthy digestion of haylage

Read Laminitis Prone Supplement Reviews here

New to the reward scheme – Jasmine Punter

Check out some photos of the latest young rider to join our reward scheme, Jasmine Punter from Wiltshire. Jasmine is currently using MuscleUp on her horse Clio. More information and updates to follow on Jasmine’s progress in 2012!

The Need for Herbs in the Modern Horse By Stephen Ashdown of Global Herbs

Why do horses need herbs?

Many years ago when horses roamed in the wild they had access to a varied diet which included a large selection of plants and herbs. It seems they had an in-built self-awareness, of what was harmful to eat and also what was good to eat. ‘Self-medication’ is a phrase commonly used to explain how horses selected different plants at different times to meet their individual dietary and health needs. A horse is a strong animal with lots of stamina which it used to travel long distances for its forage when necessary. Today, our domesticated horses lead a very different life, often restricted with grazing and limited paddocks which are not rich in a variety of grass or herbs. Horses now rely solely on the diet owners provide.

So where’s the problem?

With such domesticity horses appear to have largely lost this innate ability to choose what’s good for them, having to make do with what humans provide. Although most horse owners love their animals to distraction and will do anything to keep them fit, healthy and happy. The fact is that, we may get the feeding needs wrong from time to time and impose, without realising it, a stressful regimen which can in turn cause illness or compromise a horse’s normal digestive or immune system. Toxin overload can often present itself in very subtle ways with dull coats, lethargy or poor performance. We rightly treat our modern horses with routine wormers and vaccinations and supplement their diet with concentrated feeds. Residues of these products can be difficult to break down and can be left within the horse’s body and start to build up and slow down the horses natural defenses.

Ancient Wisdom

Before modern health services started people and animals had to rely on plants and traditional practices to keep themselves healthy.  Many of the foods that we eat everyday and plants that grow in our gardens and countryside have beneficial properties.  For example garlic helps keep chest clear, tackles parasites and can help keep skin in good condition.  Chamomile flowers make a great calming tea and help relax the bowels. Every country in the world has its own herbal traditions that have been passed down over the centuries.  In the UK much of the old wisdom associated with the use of plants was lost with the advent of modern medicine.  However modern approaches to health care enable us to understand in great detail how the body works and how best to tackle any in balance.  Much of the detailed scientific work that has been done on the way that different plants work has proved invaluable to those who are interested in promoting the use of herbs.

The Role of Herbs

Herbs play an important role in a horse’s behaviour, digestion, breathing, skin, joints, muscles, tendons and hooves. Using a natural approach to support the horse’s natural well being with herbal supplements can be used for a variety of symptoms including -

Breathing:

use a special herbal respiratory product to keep airways clean and to help with pollutants such a traffic emissions, and pollen from cultivated crops like Rape. Depending on the condition, the common nettle when eaten fresh are great for helping us and animals deal with flowering plants in the summer.

Behaviour:

use a herbal calming formula for a horse under stress, or which is head tossing, showing signs of nervousness; or overactive geldings and stallions and mares in the breeding season.

Digestion:

use a liver tonic and detoxifier on a regular basis. This will ensure your horse has a healthy liver and digestion, enabling it to make the best use of its food. In turn this directly affects your horse’s performance and general health and fitness.

Skin:

use special preparations for lumps, itching, & muddy conditions; a herbal shampoo for the horse’s coat, herbal gel for the hoof, sole and heel. There are also products which keep flies away (fly sprays) and internal fly repellents.

Joints, muscles, hooves, and tendons:

if your horse’s health is below par, wear and tear to muscles, joints and ligaments occurs faster than your horse’s ability to repair the damage. Herbs help to bring the body back into balance, ease pain and facilitate movement

Tips:

Study your horse’s body language and get to know when he is at his best so you can check for subtle changes. Herbs can be given to support the horse through changes in routine, diet, and environment and also as a support through illness or injury.

Even when your horse appears healthy, include immune support herbal products in his diet; but don’t force him to eat anything he doesn’t seem to like. Your horse knows best what suits him. Learn to notice and understand his foody needs – he can’t speak to you!

You can find more information on suitable products on our website, click here to find out more.

Clare Stringer – New to the reward scheme

The latest young rider to join our reward scheme is Clare Stringer from Leicestershire. Clare is an amateur event rider who currently owns five horses. 2011 was her first year in affiliated eventing and proved to be very successful. We wish her all the best for 2012! Read on below to find out more about Clare’s horses and her experiences with Global Herbs products.

Bandolero (Bandi): (Photo Credit MDR Photo)

“My 11 year old bay gelding. Bandi’s grandsire is the fantastic Jus de Pomme who won the showjumping at the Atlanta Olympics. I have owned him for nearly 6 years now and we have done a lot of learning together. In the 2011 season we started eventing through BE and went from BE90 level to Novice in just four months. He is now qualifed to do a CIC* which I hope to do in the 2012 season. Bandi is my horse of a lifetime.”

Kitty Way (Fifi): (Photo Credit MDR Photo)

“My 8 year old bay mare. Fifi is sired by the great stallion Nomadic Way who stands at Louella Stud. She raced prior to starting eventing and has been involved in RoR demonstrations and parades. I have known Fifi since she was a fat youngster running around the fields so to be involved in her life through the breaking, racing and now eventing, is very special. She has comepted at BE80 succesfully and made the move to BE90 at the end of the 2011 season and did a great job. She will compete at BE80 and BE90 level this season and if all goes well I hope to move up to BE100 level by the end of the year.”

(Photo Credit MDR Photo)

“In the summer of her being 5, she slowly started developing an issue in her head, at first we thought it was an evasion but she was still going nicely on the flat inbetween the twitching. The twitching developed into snatching at random times, quite aggressively. Thats when we addressed it as a headshaking problem and I invested in a nosenet, which did help but didn’t solve the problem completely, plus Fifi didn’t find it comfortable and it irritated her.

“I tried some other products with her which were put in with her feed, but they literally didn’t do a thing. I was about ready to admit defeat and accept that I would just be using the nosenet and have to settle for the slight improvement it gave us, when I came across a Global Herbs section in our local feed merchants. I bought some Shakefree and haven’t looked back! Fifi is much happier and we use it all year round, just upping the dose in times of high pollen count to keep her happy. She has been out winning dresage tests, she has been placed at BE events and is much easier to school. People actually doubt me when I say she is a headshaker! Thank you Global herbs for making such a great product which enables me to get the best from my horses!

Be prepared for the pollen season!

POLLENEX POWDER & SYRUP – Great for runny eyes, sore throats, head tossing and nose running.

For the clearest breathing:

PolleneX is a combination of tropical herbs that assists with breathing where there is difficulty with dust or pollen. Our syrup version is better for fussy feeders. The product helps keep airways open and clear when horses have become irritated by something in the air e.g. dust or pollen – specifically when dust is causing a problem in stables.

Also for use when horses are exposed to high levels of pollen in spring and summer e.g. rape seed, hedgerows, tree, specifically when your horse tosses its head in summer months and after horses have recovered from viral problems – gives nutritional support. (May combine with ImmuPlus)

Facebook Comment - Angela Dean: ”This is really good – works well in the spring”

Sponsored Rider: Sarah Gadd Update…

Sarah Gadd is one of our brilliant sponsored riders and a Global Herbs fanatic! She had fantastic results with Sarc-Ex when she fed it to her ex-racehorse Still Learning (Roxie) and she now uses many of our products to keep her three Eventers in top shape.

All her horses are fed GlobalVite for all round vitamin and mineral support and Roxie, her top horse, is also fed FriskyMare Plus and MSM. Sarah recently took her to a 2* and 3* Training Clinic. Keep reading to see how she got on and for more info on how her horses benefit from Global Herbs.

“We had a great day at Knowle Farm on Sunday for the 2* and 3* Training Clinic with Gill Watson! Both Roxie and I learnt lots and also met some great people.

We started off the day meeting in the coffee room all stood round the fire to keep warm. We had a breif talk before going and tacking up, ready for our first lesson, which was Dressage. We warmed up and worked on some 2* and 3* movements before running through the 2* A Dressage test, which was judged by Gill and the other people that weren’t riding. When I had to judge Hannah’s test with Roweena it made me realise how quick the Dressage judges have to think as each movement / mark comes up so quickly!

Once we had all ridden we went and sat back around the fire to defrost and have a bite to eat. Whilst we had some lunch we watched our tests back on the TV after Alice had very kindly videoed them all for us. Gill went through our marks whilst we were watching the tests so it was very interesting hearing from Gill what the judges are really looking for in each of the movements. We all took down many notes whilst listening too! After we had watched our videos we had a talk with Robin Balfour on FEI rules. This was very interesting and we all realised that we didn’t know as many as we proably should and the British Eventing rules are quite different to the FEI Eventing rules…..some bedtime reading for me then!

After lunch we went and tacked up again to begin our Show Jumping lesson. Before we started jumping we did lots of work on getting them really listening to the riders aids. To do this we worked them on serpentines in trot and canter, each time we crossed the centre line we changed the pace, either through walk, trot or by doing a flying change. This really helped get Roxie nice and supple and listening to me. During our Show Jumping lesson we worked on related distances, some slightly short distances, some slightly longer distances and some on the correct striding. To finish off we linked them all together as a small course and had to react very quickly on landing after each fence making sure we had the correct canter needed for the next line of jumps.

We have lots coming up in the near future so keep checking back for regualr updates on what’s going on at Sarah Gadd Eventing.

So, until next time,
X”

Check out some more pictures from Sarah Gadd Eventing below.

Diamond Mill (Milli) is Sarah’s 4 year old home bred and is a very exciting prospect. She is now starting to go out competing and Sarah has started feeding her Muscle Up to help support her development and build top line. We are looking forward to bringing you ‘Before and After’ pictures to show you just how well it works.

Dress Sense (Sabrina) is also an ex-racer, and started affiliated Eventing last year. She benefits hugely from SuperCalm not only when being ridden, but also on the yard and in the field. A relaxed and happy horse will perform better!

Shona Brearley & Jasper’s Story

My horse Jasper is a bit of a Global Herbs junkie! He is on Movefree Plus, Airway Plus, SupaHOOF, Mud-X and Endure. He’s 22 this year and is off to do his first 30k endurance ride of the season next Sunday and is looking and feeling fab! He recently won the best Veteran Plus horse at our regional endurance group .

As you will see in one of the pictures he is cantering past a field of oilseed rape – without his Airway Plus that would have been impossible as he is allergic to flowering oilseed rape and used to cough constantly when it was flowering. I’m firmly of the opinion that the herbs are keeping him going !!!!

Leap-Plus with Jazpa and Becci Leigh Harrold!

Thanks to our sponsored rider Becci Leigh Harrold for this great video featuring Jazpa the 10 year old Jack Russell. Jazpa shows off the effects of Global Herbs pet product Leap Plus…

“Absolutely amazed at the effects of Leap-Plus. My Jack has never looked or been able to walk so good.  Recommend to anyone! ” – Becci

Amy Collingwood’s Story – Movefree Plus

“Caesar is a 7 year old, 15.2hh TB. I have had him about 18 months, and I took him on as a challenge – he has a sore back, and his owners had lost their confidence with him. Incidently, 4 days before I took him on, I injured my back, and so the first 3 months was spent working him inhand and getting to know him. Over the next 12 months though we went through a cycle of me riding him for 4-6 weeks, before him having bucking fits, and behaving badly through a sore back, and having to go back to square one. Typical symptoms included rearing, bucking, throwing his head, and biting and kicking, and being difficult to handle out when on the ground. Which was all out of character as he is actually a really friendly, honest, well mannered horse.

I got the vet, chiroprator, and saddler out, and everyone was perplexed. He is “cold-backed”, but the soreness he was displaying on being examined should not be the cause of the massive behavioural issues that I had been experiencing. He was essentially written off with behavioural issues and I should give him up as a lost cause. But I couldn’t. I persevered with physio and keeping up the exercise, but after another 6 weeks, the old behaviours returned and this time I ended up on my backside in the warm up arena for a dressage test…

So, I went to my local tack shop and the staff there suggested I try MoveFree Plus, combined with AlphaBute. Three weeks later, he was moving much more freely on the lunge. Before getting on, I thought it would be wise for me to have the chiropractor come out and check him out. She was amazed. I’d spoken to her about the issues I had been facing and she was expecting to find him seized up, and in a lot of discomfort. In fact, he was moving the best he had in 12 months and literally dragged me across the yard when we trotted up. He had very little tension, and needed far less work than he had done in the previous visits.

I arranged to have a lesson and got back on. And he worked really nicely – just in walk and trot, but we were not going to push it. Due to his on-off career, he is still very green, and needs a lot of training, but he is showing a lot of promise, and can freely bring his back up, and step underneath himself – he just lacks the confidence and strength to maintain it for more than half a dozen steps at the moment. And the best bit was, the next day, he was totally pain free! After such a session previously, he would be so sore that he would bite me just putting on a rug, and lash out with his back legs when picking them up.

It has only been about 6 weeks but his whole manner has changed – he seems to look forward to his work now, and is generally a much nicer horse to be around. Just walking to the field, I can see he is striding out with confidence. I just need to wait for the snow to clear so that I can crack on with everything. But I will be getting back on with the confidence that I can work him without worrying about whether his back will be sore the next day. I know I have a long way to go yet, but I’m looking forward to making into the actual main arena now at shows opposed to sitting on my bottom in the warm up!

I am now using the MoveFree with my 16 year old New Forest Pony – Jack - who is starting to get a bit stiff. I’m hoping to get him back to his old bouncy self too after having colic surgery in the summer.

I have never seen such a change in such a short amount of time. Totally converted to your products now!

Amy Collingwood (and Caesar and Jack)

P.S. -  I have just got back from riding Caesar, and for the first time ever I have managed to have a successful ride without needing to lunge him first. I cannot say enough howmuch of a difference this product has made to him!”

Sponsored Rider – Learna Frost Eventing

New to our ‘Reward Scheme’ is Learna Frost, a 16 year old amateur event rider based in Derbyshire. Learna owns one event horse, Maxamillion IV, which she currently competes at BE100/Novice level.

Learna says: “2011 was our first year competing affiliated and it was great fun! With all the preperation through this winter, I hope 2012 will be an even better year!

I have been using the ‘Endure’ supplement for about a month and a half now. I have found that in preparation for the eventing season ‘Endure’ has helped out a lot, allowing Max to recover fast from training hard and enabling us to get on with our job! I would recommend this product to people with horses in intense work!”

We wish Learna the best of luck for 2012 and look forward to sharing her news with the Global Herbs blog  readers!