Customer Reviews

A Modern Horse Herbal

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Hilary Page Self is a horse owner who has researched, collected and used the traditonal herbal remedies on horses. Many of the materials are readily available, and/or obtainable. A Modern Horse Herbal is written in an easy to use and clear style. Being British she also includes American terms to avoid confusion. Though only 175 pages, it is full of valuable information. It is especially useful, because she encourages the owner to work together with modern medicine, along with a qualified veterinarian.

I really enjoy using this book. My 29 year old gelding has found new vigor from the suggested herbs, and my son's 2 year old mare is in peak condition thanks to black oil sunflower seeds and other recommendations. I recommend this book to anyone with horses who's interested in helping them to stay happy and healthy into old age.

This is my first book I have been able to read on herbal remedies for horses. It is conscise, with a section describing many popular herbs and their uses, along with a section of common aliments and their treatments. The information provided on other forms of alternative therapies is a little skimpy. But it is called Modern Horse Herbal, and the herbal information is excellent.

A Modern Horse Herbal written by the founder of Hilton Herbs, Hilary Page Self goes into an alphabetical list of herbs (part 1) and then common medical problems that may benefit from herbal treatment (part 2). My personal feeling is that the Part 3, covering Alternate Therapies was a throw-away chapter that should have been deleted from the book, while the other two chapters could have used more in-depth, discussion.

Part 1 - the Materia Medica gives an overview of common herbs used for horses. Where this book is a standout is that there is simply not enough data out there in book form written by knowledgeable people about this subject as it pertains to horses. For that reason alone, I feel this is a worthwhile addition to the horse owners' library, especially if you are dealing with a horse condition that is not responding to traditional modern medicine (though of course, a vet should always be consulted FIRST!).

Each herb description gives scientific name, dosage amount and how it can be used. I feel that this section could have been improved with even more details, color photos of the herb in question, and better cross-referencing to the Ailments section.

Also, a sub-topic such as contraindications or warnings should have been clearly italicized and noted on each entry. You can never be too careful with the wide variety of people who will read this and self-medicate, perhaps even over-medicate to illness or death.

Where I feel the book gets dicey is too much is expressed as "fact": "this XYZ herb does this medical miracle and has been used since the 1800's etc.. etc..." The simple truth is that there is not enough scientific evidence that certain herbs heal or influence healing. While I do believe they are helpful in certain situations, I know that herbs take more a longer time to make an impact and are not helpful to all horses even if they have the same condition.

Most of what Self writes is from folklore beliefs without scientific validity to back up her claims. This probably makes the book go down well with devout herbalists and natural alternative aficionados but further infuriates the traditionalist medical community. As I sit in the middle of this, I would simply have liked to have seen less wild claims of medical healing, and more cautions and testing.

Part 2 - Common Ailments gives descriptions of common problems that your horse may show: asthma, skin conditions, coughing, fertility etc... and what herbs would be most likely to heal or correct the problem. The herbs are marked in bold, and are to be referenced back to Part 1 for dosage and in-depth details. This cross-referencing gets a bit clunky, especially when it is repeated in the back of the book index.

Part 3 - is a brief sojourn into other Alternative Therapies i.e. Bach, Homeopathy, Chiropractic etc... and with only 11 pages of it, it"s too little to explore these themes and mainly comes across as a foot note. This throw-away chapter should have been deleted from the book, while the other two chapters could have used more in-depth, discussion.

The addition of Homeopathy and Bach Flower Essences next to Chiropractic work, just struck me as a bit odd too as I certainly do not lump these "alternative therapies" together in terms of treatment use, scientific validity or proven efficacy.

While I feel this book has standout points and is a worthwile addition to the horse owners' library I would like to have seen some of the things I felt lacked in another book I reviewed on horse herbs:

1.) A section on how to evaulate if the herb is helping your horse by doing a food trial.

2.) Less folklore and more footnotes to support the authors' claims.

3.) Perhaps a short section about how to find and work with a Herbalist and/or Vet for Holistic care of your horse.

This is a great companion book to the Veteran Horse Herbal, which I also own. There is valuable information in this book that you won't find anywhere else. I highly recommend it to horse owners who are looking for natural ways to complement their horse's health.

The herbs that Hilary Self writes about really do work. I've used this book with great results, bringing back to ridability an old horse that was lame and unridable for 5 years, calming another that spooked too easily, helping sinus congestion on another...and more. Not all viable horse herbs are covered in this book. Nevertheless, this excellent reference points the equestrian and veterinarian in the right direction to those that the horse will eat and digest most readily. Horses can be finicky, but she writes about the herbs they most find palatible.