An Introduction to Herbal Medicine

[Kensi Lawliet]

Dariya Zaymidoroga
Fionn Paquet
Gavriila Shahar
Isaiah Beringer
@running5
Jon Atticus McCloud
Lakklynn Waters
Natalie Popović

Kensi reeked of lavender and she knew it. She'd woken up that morning feeling more nervous than she had since she herself had been a high school student. Thus Kensi had done what she'd been doing for years; she'd drowned herself in oils-hence the pungent scent of lavender wafting through the classroom. She shuffled her notes, waiting for her new students to take their seats. Her hands were shaking, not that the tremors were abnormal, but worse than usual thanks to her nerves. A sigh puffed from between her lips. "Stop this," she berated herself, "You're acting as bad as freshman year. Get a grip!"

Mental pep talk delivered, Kensi straightened and pasted a smile on her lips, hoping it didn't appear too forced or fake. "Hello everyone, I'm Kensi Lawliet, the new Herbal Medicines instructor. Please call me Kensi, anything more formal makes me feel much older than I am." She surveyed the assortment of students, taking in their individual faces, "First off, I'm horrid with recalling names so I'm going to apologize in advance for calling any of you by the wrong name."

"Today, as something of an introduction, I will be going over the three basic kinds of herbal or natural medicines and supplements that can be beneficial to you and your horses. My classes will be mostly lecture based, with a few practice runs with some of the school horses. I won't have any tests or papers or anything. In my experience if you want to learn, you will, if you don't then you won't. I'll be basing my grading mostly off of participation, as long as you're paying attention and asking or answering a question now and again, you'll do great."



"All right, so for starters, the three main methods of natural medicines are through Oils, Vitamin and Minerals, and Herbs. Can anyone guess which is most effective for horses and why?"

[Fionn Paquet]

With lunch finished, Finn couldn't work out why he was still hungry; he'd probably eaten enough to feed two people, but he found that he was always hungry at the moment. Leaving the cafeteria, he headed to his dorm to get changed into his riding clothes. Even though his first class would be in a classroom, he didn't want to have to try and find time between herbal remedies and riding lessons to fit in time to get changed so it was just best to attend the one unmounted class as though he were going riding.

Since he had a pair of riding boots in Spur's locker, he walked into the classroom wearing one of his favourite pair of loafers and gave the teacher a bright smile before he found a seat in the middle of the classroom, pulling out the folder he had for this class out of his bag, along with a black pen and then lounged back in his chair as he waited for things to kick off.

As the woman began the lesson he sat up a little straighter, best to look attentive, and pursed his lips when she said to address her by her first name, a smirk tugged at his lips as he knew it would be something his formality always comes first father would hate. His eyebrows shot up as she explained the class and he wondered how long he would remain in it if the Congressman found out that it was pretty much a bird-course (one that anyone could simply fly through).

He raised his hand when the question was asked. "Oils, would be the most effective?" Yes, his answer was also a question as he wasn't as certain of his answer once he'd spoken. "Because they are dissolved through the skin, whereas most of the others need to be ingested and the horse may not like the taste and won't eat them." He was more confident with the secodn part of his answer, and only then wondered if he should have introduced himself first.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai left lunch a bit early and headed back to the green ribbon house. He had his jumping class right after herbal remedies, so it was just easier to be dressed for the mounted classes early. After he'd changed, he headed back to the classrooms building, heading to the equine wing this time. As he entered, he nodded to the teacher, “Good afternoon, Ms. Lawliet.” He had double checked on the woman's name while he was in his room, too. Never too early to make a good impression!

He headed over to where Finn was sitting, smiling at the boy and then sitting down next to his fellow gymnast, “I wonder if we'll learn about any of the things that Serenity uses.” He knew that the other girl used some sort of herbs, although he had never really gotten a chance to ask her about it.

As the class started, Kai turned his attention to the teacher, silently resigned as she insisted they used her first name. What was it with teachers here? He was so used to being formal with teachers, but it was rude to address them in any way except what they preferred too. He would simply have to get over it. He listened as she explained the format of the class, nodding slightly, although when they were asked a question, he stayed silent, having no clue. Finn's answer seemed good, though.

[Natalie Popović]

Natalie made sure she looked nice for her classes. Fashionable without seeming like too much of a princess about it. She didn't have any friends yet, but that didn't mean it would stay that way. Even though she only had her unmounted classes today, Natalie still dressed to ride. She planned on giving Dixie a bit of a run before the day's end. Her mare was good for decompressing after a day of school.

She took a seat near the back of the classroom and dropped her canvas messenger bag on the ground and scrolled through her SnapChat while she waited for the class to formally start. She thought the teacher looked like a hippie, but this was Herbal Remedies and not pharmacology. She wrote down Kensi's name as 'Kenzie', assuming it was a nickname for Mackenzie. There was a Mackenzie at her old school, but she went by Mack.

The first question sounded obvious enough. Vitamins and minerals were essential to having a healthy horse while oils and herbs improved health. People needed vitamins and minerals, too, after all. She disagreed with the boy's reasoning about oils. She gave Dixie oil for her coat as part of her feed, not a bath. Natalie raised her hand to give her own answer.

"Vitamins and minerals are the most effective because they're necessary for a horse's health. Only small amounts are needed, and most horses get enough vitamins and minerals through their normal feed. Salt and mineral blocks can be offered to horses as a cheap way to provide the necessary supplements. And for most minerals, there's um...a wide margin between what's necessary and what's toxic. Um, yeah."

Her instructor in Minnesota always used mineral and vitamin supplements in the winter because the hay wasn't nearly as rich. Natalie couldn't remember everything her teacher said, but she knew the basics if nothing else.

[Kensi Lawliet]

Not the answers that Kensi had been looking for but they were good, adequately backed responses. She smiled and turned her attention to the young man who'd spoken first,  "Responding to your question-answer, oils are an effective method, but are actually more commonly used aromatically rather than through the skin, the best recommended method involving oils is to simply let the horse inhale the oil either from the bottle or from your hand. This is the method we will use. The reason for this is that while oils are natural and nontoxic, they are highly concentrated and must be used very specifically"

"Oils are better used for the riders' benefits. There are a large number of oils, and oil blends that can be used to help a rider's concentration or nerves during a competition. We'll study some of them a bit later." 

Kensi's eyes flicked to the young woman who'd spoke second, nodding slightly, "While you are correct that vitamins and minerals are essential to a horse's health and diet, oftentimes you'll find that a horse will dislike some feed, pills, or mineral blocks."

"The best method is often overlooked, much like you all have done, so don't worry about not having the right answer. Horses and ponies are the archetypal herbivores. They rely on herbage for all their nutritional, physiological, and biochemical needs. A horse's feed is typically mainly grains, hay or pasture, alfalfa, beets, soybeans, and many others depending on what specific type of feed being used. A large number of herbage is already included in the feed, but often times there is a need for supplement. Most horses have no problem chowing down on a few extra leafy greens that are added to their daily feed in order to add missing vitamins or remedies for simple ailments like allergies. There are picky horses, I am the proud owner of one, but herbs tend to be the best method for herbal medicine."  

Kensi paused for a breath, hoping she hadn't just puked information all over her class. She scanned the room looking for signs of confusion or bewilderment. "Any questions about this?" 

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn listened as a girl in the class gave another answer and he nodded as she did bring up a really good point, one he hadn't thought about, and then turned his attention back to the teacher as she corrected both of them, though he knew another gymnast who would disagree with the woman's statement about oils being better for the riders, but he wasn't going to start that discussion, as he didn't want to say anything that would get Serenity in trouble.

He raised his hand when Ms Lawliet finished speaking. "But herbs will be like the minerals and things, where some horses won't eat them because they don't like the taste and, or smell of them. And there are a lot of herbs that a poisonous to horses, or can cause horrid effects to mares who are in foal." He stopped talking and bowed his head, hoping he wasn't overstepping his bounds here, cause wouldn't his father just love a call about him being obstinate? He'd seen enough posters lining the walls of the feedroom at his last barn to know what was dangerous for the horses and what wasn't. "Sorry, I'm just curious to know how you'd get around them not wanting to eat something even though you know that it would be better for them if they did."

[Erik Kightlinger]

Erik glanced up from his notebook, which hid a book about the very subject the class was on. Er, supplementary text. Yeah. The fella in the fancy English riding get up had questioned the teacher's conclusion. The original question had reeked of 'trap' to Erik so he'd avoided weighing in on the topic with what he was certain would have been the entirely too practical and impossible to argue with kind of response that made teachers hate a fella. That answer being 'it depends on the horse and what you are trying to accomplish', of course. A lot of goals had more than one answer, which was good if you had a finicky animal or limited resources available. If one way wouldn't work you could take another route instead. When the teacher had declared for one of the three answers, instead of reflecting his own thinking, Erik had gotten confirmation that he'd made the right choice in remaining silent.

His friend, one of the two fellas who's name he didn't know yet, had made a good point however. A point that reflected his own thinking. "Ya answered your own question, bud. There's a lot of times when more than one medium can get the job done. If your horse won't cooperate with the first, go with the second. Paw calls it the 'Cat Skinning Principle', as in there's more than one way." He then looked to the teacher and tipped his cowboy hat by casually grabbing the leading edge of the brim with thumb and forefinger, by way of an apology. "Sorry to interrupt, Miss." Dressed in blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a long sleeved t-shirt. Sitting casually. He just smiled at whoever gave him the eye.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai frowned as he heard both of the given answers being refuted, although he copied down the information that the teacher gave them dutifully. He didn't know much about herbs, how could he expect to know what was right or wrong? He could see what she was saying, though, and he didn't doubt that Lupus would be more than happy to eat herbs, at least once. Provided they weren't too bitter, she might even eat them in the future. Not that he was really going to add anything to her feed, she seemed to be going fine on what he had her on now, without the need for extra plants.

Of course, Finn would bring up the same thing he'd been thinking, and he listened to the discussion that it started, curious to know what the teacher would say about both sides. The new boy, whose name he hadn't caught, was right, though. Perhaps herbs were the best method, but if those didn't work, one could give supplements, even orally if need be, before progressing down the list to the less effective methods. If those were the ones that worked, then they were still a heck of a lot more effective than the 'best' methods, right?

[Natalie Popović]

Natalie bit her tongue in annoyance. Great, now everyone would think she was stupid. Had a 50% shot at getting the question right and she blew it. And the teacher's answer that some horses didn't like the taste of mineral blocks wasn't really a good counterargument. Some horses didn't like the taste of celery. Did that mean horses shouldn't be eating vegetables? And there really was truth to the whole 'can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink' adage. If a horse wasn't going to eat it, then a horse wasn't going to eat it.

"Okay, so how are we defining the term herb? Depending on who you ask, there are four different answers. Are we talking about a plant with seeds with no woody stem and dies after each growing season, the culinary herb which includes things like rosemary and bay laurel, medicinal herbs which is seems to include any plant that has some alleged healing property, or marijuana? And not all medicinal herbs used for people are safe with horses. Foxglove being one of them, dandelions being another."

She really hated being wrong especially in front of the whole class. Her own horse could be picky too, and not all horses were thrilled to go chomping on cilantro. She certainly fell into the category of hating the taste. As for minerals and vitamins, there were ways to encourage a horse to eat them. Some people mixed them into a horse's grain, others put salt licks and mineral blocks near where a horse would eat.

"Also, it's not like medicinal herbs are easy to get a hold of. Eucalyptus leaves, aisle nine at Walmart. It seems to me that the easiest way to cure a horse's ailment would be to give Dr. Carr a call and have her weigh in with expert knowledge. Herbs and stuff should be used to maintain a horse's health while relying on traditional medications to cure. I, for one, am not particularly interested in playing herbal roulette with my horse's health."

Was she being difficult? Probably. But the mere idea of just experimenting with different techniques on her horse like a guinea pig in a laboratory was horrifying. And Dixie never had any problems with a salt lick or minerals in her feed. She knew she was repeating a little bit of what the other boy said, but they were definitely valid concerns.

[Deleted]

While everyone else was answering the question, Feralas was writing down everything a person would say into his black notebook with his sparkly blue pen. Some people might call him girly, or whatever, but he would be himself while he was here. Having been there since the beginning of the class and pretty much ignoring whoever sat where, Feralas as content to keeping to himself.

Once the one girl started speaking, Feralas bit his lip and furiously scrawled down everything of importance. Herbs were fairly important, Fer knew, but so were vitamins, minerals, and oils. And why was she so stuck on herbs? Biting his lip, Feralas's mind wandering. There was something connected to the question, and everyone else was broadening the horizon. His eyes narrowed.

Slowly raising his hand from the back of the room, Feralas let himself speak normally. " They're all equally important supplements. While vitamins are important, so are minerals, oils, and herbs. I agree there are some poisonous herbs that are bad for pregnant mares and for horses generally, and that some horses might need them. However, we are talking about medicinal supplements for horses. Not dietary. To me, it seems like you guys are missing the point. "

Feralas hesitated for a moment. " To me, the most important of them would be vitamins. It doesn't matter if the horse doesn't like anything or not. What should matter is that your horse may or may not be healthy because of what it's body naturally supplements and what the body doesn't get naturally. Factually though, they are all equally important. "