I just wanted to share this lovely video of Timmy self-selecting herbs, testing some oils, and healing with the Trust Technique. I have been working through a course on animal self-selection for medicinal purposes and wanted to start working a little with Timmy regarding his cribbing, without pushing him. At the moment we are just testing to see what is a definite, a maybe, or a not at all. I have also just started the Trust Technique Practitioner course, with a view to combining all these healing techniques into something I can take to other animals and people.
The order of the herbs as he goes round is Marigold flowers hanging up, then Chrysanthemum on the floor, Meadowsweet hanging up, Mullein in the bowl, Slippery elm in the bowl, then Rosehips hanging up.
Timmy first sniffs most of the bowls then has some Slippery Elm. I then close the gate so he gets no interruptions for a while. He goes around again and has some marigold flowers. Both of these herbs are basically for digestion.
When he goes and starts nibbling hay, I notice he starts an automated cribbing action as well on the wooden post in the barn. I offer him Marigold oil to start with as he had some dried marigold flowers. When he goes to crib he starts to sniff the oil instead and after a while chooses not to crib. I rub some on the post. This oil is a macerate so it is not as strong as an essential oil. I think an essential oil maybe better but I will have to get some before I can move forward with this oil. He certainly liked it so that oil is on my list for his cribbing.
The next oil is a peppermint essential oil. I have chosen this as well because of its properties for digestion issues. Although he is eating he is also responding well to the oil. I felt it was better to let him eat at the same time as offering the oils as he had told me by his herb choices that it was digestion that was the issue. His eyes soften as he is inhaling the oil and he doesn’t leave his spot. He also didn’t crib while he was inhaling this oil. After a good long time he moved away and then asked to go out for some water. Peppermint goes on the cribbing list, but I sense I haven’t found the ultimate medication yet. I sense that cribbing may be causing digestive issues for him, but not necessarily digestive issues causing the cribbing. (Between the marigold and the peppermint I offered clove oil but he gave e a definite no on that one. I also offered pain relief oils just to see if he needed them but today he didn’t. His main focus seemed to be on digestion today).
Querida then decided to take advantage of the open gate and see what was on offer. She takes a few marigold flowers and then a little bit of chrysanthemum. She sniffs the others disdainfully and then tucks into the rosehips and doesn’t stop! Timmy rejoins us and has a sniff of the chrysanthemum but decides that Querida has the right idea and helps her finish the rosehips. It is interesting how he makes some work of them, as though they are not quite to his taste – like a child taking his medicine. Rosehips are an antioxidant and would help him to metabolise the oils he selected earlier. You can see his eyes becoming really soft. He then relaxes and yawns out his releases.
I added some more rosehips to the bowl. Timmy had a handful from me as I was leaving, then got stuck into the slippery elm. He didn’t want anymore rosehips after that. He had a crib or two then moved down to the hay. After that I decided to sit down and use the trust technique present moment technique I emptied my mind of everything to do with cribbing and oils and herbs and Timmy joined me. You can see him processing the session. I like to think he was healing some of the top layer of any physical issues to do with his cribbing.
There is a long way to go yet but each time I do this we are taking steps to finding out what lies beneath. The more I allow him to choose, and the more I sit with him and process and heal, the deeper we will be able to go.
After Timmy gets up he relaxes again and rests and I have shown you a snapshot of the rest of the herd supporting. They had never left during the entire morning session, and apart from Querida showing Timmy that he needed to have some rosehips, they never interfered either.