Chia seeds, horses and how to use a pendulum effectively

Chia seeds are a very useful addition to our horses feed in most circumstances, but they are particularly good when you keep your horse in sandy conditions.  Their sticky properties when they’re wet  can pick up the colic causing sand and keep it moving through the digestive system.

To help you with sandy conditions, you want the seeds to really soak up the water and turn into a jelly that looks very similar to the frogs eggs that we used to collect when we were children and watch them turn into tadpoles and frogs.

Do kids still do things like that? 🙂  I must keep my eyes out and do this with the two smaller grandchildren – it’s such a fascinating process to watch.

Back to the subject!  You can use a pendulum  to check the dosage of chia that is appropriate for your horse in their individual circumstances. There’s two short videos below on how to do that.

Validate the dosage you get, by checking the normal dosage with an online article and if your horse is looking for a lot higher dose than normal (which could be the case if your horse has sand in their stomach), have a chat to a horse naturopath or vet just to make sure that you’re doing everything possible for this potentially dangerous condition.

You don’t want to be buying chia seeds from the supermarket – they are way more expensive than they need to be.  I’ve extracted the following information from the newsletter of Naturally Equine, who sell well priced chia seeds, but only in New Zealand.  Google a local supply for where you live. 🙂

ABOUT CHIA FOR HORSES

Here’s the detailed information about chia seeds from Naturally Equine’s article, with a bit of paraphrasing from me to make it easier to understand.

Chia seed contains antioxidants, linolenic and linoleic acid, protein 30%, with 8 essential amino acids.

Chia seeds contain the one of the highest known sources of essential fatty acids (EFA). Essential Fatty Acid’s absorb sunlight and attract oxygen into the body.  The oxygen will be held at the cell membrane, making a barrier against viruses and bacteria. Essential Fatty Acid’s are vital to the function of the immune system and metabolic reactions in the body, also known to be excellent for horses with Equine Metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance.

The sticky properties of the seed have a swelling action similar to psyllium, absorbing toxins, lubricating the colon and strengthening the body’s ability to move the contents of the intestine onwards – always a good action to have in colic prone horses.  (See our Colic First Aid program if you have a colic prone horse.)

Chia seed also contains the trace mineral strontium, which acts as catalyst in the assimilation of protein and production of energy. Strontium has a strengthening benefit to cartilage, teeth and bone.

How to use a pendulum

You can use a pendulum to check the amount of chia seeds (or anything else) to put into your horse’s feed.  It’s a simple tool – not mysterious at all, as you’ll see in this 2 minute introductory video about how it works, why it works and how to get a simple yes/no answer.

This second video is a detailed example of how to use the pendulum, the right kind of questions to ask and a procedure to make sure that what you’re prescribing is effective.

Please only use your pendulum for things like the simple but incredibly powerful food herbs like I suggest in this video.  I am passionate about food as medicine – the power of food and food herbs for maintaining or getting back to good health is enormous.

But there’s way too much to know, to risk prescribing other types of herbs or drugs for yourself or your horse.  You can only get the answers from your subconscious that your subconscious knows.

So for safety reasons, those possibly dangerous decisions should be left for your doctor or naturopath.

In accordance with the “something extra” that I announced last week that I would be giving you with each article, here’s the “Something Extra”! 🙂

The best horse diet

The best horse diet is a wide range of different types of grasses and herbs that grow naturally in the horse’s pasture – where they can pick and choose exactly what their bodies need today.

This photo of Bobby grazing on just such a herb, with the lovely long grass in the background is an example of our grazing conditions here.

But not all of us are as blessed as I am to live on a farm where I have both the room and the conditions to be able to do that. (I have 11 horses, 3 of them tiny ponies on approximately 45 acres.)

When you don’t have these kind of grazing conditions, you can simulate that by grazing your horse on the side of a quiet country road, amongst what is usually a wide variety of native grasses and give your horse the opportunity to get that wide variety of grasses that promote good health.  Once you have a relaxed happy horse in all kinds of circumstances, you could even do the Grazing Game out of Fast Track – the one in the saddle – and really give both your horse and yourself a treat!

And if grazing out there is not safe, then you can cut some of those grasses regularly and bring them to your horse.

Caution:

On rare occasions, hungry horses will eat things that are not good for them, so as a precaution, only do this AFTER feeding.