Mindstates
Equine Holistic Healthcare
by Jan D. Wellik
Wherever Dr. Heather Mack goes — horse barns, stalls, and pastures — she comes equipped with vials of essential oils. Dressed in jeans and a hospital v-neck scrub, she is both eccentric and traditional in the way she practices medicine.
“Why are you so sad?” she asked Zed, a Del Mar show horse. Zed turned his head shyly, right before she discovered a sensitive area in his heart meridian.
Dr. Mack, owner of Holistic Veterinary Services, combines acupuncture, chiropractic techniques, essential oils and massage to provide a holistic approach to horse care in Southern California.
“His thoracic cavity is smooshed and mangled. We want to fill it up with love and light and ease,” she said, directly to Zed. “We want his heart and lungs to fit easily in the rib cage. We want to balance the pericardium (heart) and help him to trust himself.”
Zed was a tough patient that day, and kept his heart hidden behind a wall — stubborn and unchanging, despite the application of Aroma Life essential oil. “Zed has a protective personality, defensive, like many people,” she explained. “It’s rare to work with a horse like Zed. One in a 1,000 reacts like him,” she said. Usually they open up right away to her comforting voice and warm-hearted presence.
Although Mack works predominantly with performance horses in San Diego County, she says it is not the best life for a horse. “These horses are all imprisoned. Show horses only get an hour or two of run time each day,” she said.
Mack takes notes as she works on each patient, logging previous ailments and current problems.
“I like keeping well horses well,” she said as she worked a black mare named Molly, one of her regulars in the Del Mar circuit. Mack helps them find the best possible balance for their bodies.
“Horses are looking for homeostasis,” she said. With Molly, Mack applied a transformation essential oil because Molly is already familiar with the scents and techniques of this holistic vet and welcomes her visit.
An equine session with Mack often starts with “very gentle play,” also known as a chiropractic technique called network spinal analysis involving the nervous system. She completes an acupuncture diagnostic with a small tool to draw invisible meridian lines on the horse’s body, leaving traces in the fur like a starry constellation.
Since Molly is weak in the back end and hip joint, Dr. Mack bled the gall bladder meridian above the hoof. A laser with cellular telepathy is used to improve the horse’s energy at a cellular level. Mack works with Molly about three or four times per year. Once each season is the perfect time for a holistic visit, according to Mack, flowing in sync with the natural cycles.
Often, Mack finds that dental problems are the reason for other ailments in the horses. “TMJ is the biggest problem because when the teeth are out of balance it leads to other imbalances,” she said. “It connects to their posture.” Being a holistic vet means that she must work to defy old fallacies in the world of veterinary medicine, and repair harm done by “incompetent horse dentists” and “old traditional practices,” she said.
Mack has a decidedly eclectic style incorporating energy work, physical therapy, chiropractic techniques, essential oils, massage, acupuncture, and laser therapy into her veterinary services.
Her gentle, but firm movements put the horses at ease, and they often begin to relax in her care. She uses a “bite the fly” move to get them to re-adjust their own necks. She pinches lightly on their haunches so that they swing their necks around quickly, providing a light snap and re-alignment without having the vet manually strain the horse’s neck.
Another uniquely holistic technique is homeopathic acupuncture, in which she combines the horse’s own blood with medicine before inserting the needle. The acupuncture diagnostic of pressure points helps to identify the problem areas. The horse reacts by moving or kicking a leg, or bending a hip to one side if something is sore.
“Acupuncture is holistic; it’s based on traditional Chinese medicine and addresses the whole horse, instead of systematically fixing problems,” said Dr. Lisa Grim of Rancho Santa Fe, California.
Grim is starting with acupuncture and some herbs because she has found that they often solve the problems, “that we don’t have cures for yet, like gait abnormalities, back issues and range of motion.”
Performance horses face chronic and acute injuries and acupuncture can help increase the release of natural painkillers such as endorphins, encephalin and serotonin.
Instead of diagnosing the exact problem, acupuncture helps diagnose the whole horse including meridians and organs. “This is much different from traditional medicine,” said Grim.
“Acupuncture helps increase energy and blood flow, which allows the horse’s body to help heal itself,” she says.
Dr. Grim recently helped a mare with hormonal problems and who was previously very easily spooked. Now the rider tells her, “I’m really enjoying riding my horse.”
Horses need more social time, more “real time,” advises Mack. The ideal would be for horses to get turned out in the pasture for three months of the year when they’re not training and not showing — so that they can “connect with Mother Nature.”
“The hardest thing for show horses is that they miss celestial energies and the cycles of nature because they are indoors or kept in stalls,” she said.
“Remind him to be more conscious of his postures,” she advises 15-year-old Jordan about her show horse, Suede, with whom she has a loving and respectful relationship.
Dr. Mack’s holistic approach is gaining recognition around the world, even among traditional horse shows and owners. Mack has accompanied the U.S. Equestrian Team on tour through Europe as a team vet and Dr. Grim emphasizes performance horse medicine and acupuncture in her practice.
Jan D. Wellik is an environmental journalist in Southern California. EcoExpressions.org. Dr. Lisa Grim will host a lecture on Equine Acupuncture at Helen Woodward Equine Hospital in Rancho Santa Fe on May 13 at 6pm. Register for this free lecture by calling, 760.634.2144.