Midnight is my heart horse… you know the one that gets under your skin and you can’t imagine life without them; who is connected to you on a physical, emotional and mental level; who lifts your spirits by a simple glance, or nudge of your arm; that horse who is completely and utterly irreplaceable. However, our journey together has not been a simple one, but it is a path that led me to learn to look at every side of the story, because what might seem to be the problem, is not always the case.
Midnight is a polocrosse horse – always has been and always will be. He loves the game and is a force to be reckoned with out on the field. I learnt to play polocrosse on this majestic steed, and he is the reason that I fell in love with this awesome sport. However, a few years into our polocrosse career, the wheels started to fall off. Midnight struggled to eat at carnivals and often came home looking more like a racehorse than a polocrosse horse. He became increasingly stressed and ‘hot’, so much so that I needed a stronger bit and gag to be able to stop him on the field. His owner at the time, Allen, put it down to my ‘hot seat’ and nerves, and we didn’t think much more of it, as he is a thoroughbred and a big strong horse. However, he then started to develop a really bad back, which just didn’t get better despite changing saddles, padding options and checking saddle fit. It got so bad that he was getting bowen therapy once a fortnight just to keep him in work. His owner, Allen, told me that if his back didn’t get any better, we would have to retire him from playing polocrosse.
Then fate intervened. I had been advised by my bowen therapist to get Dr Bruce Ferguson from Murdoch University to come 
and do acupuncture on a horse at the stables with stifle lock, and after treating that horse, I asked if he might be able to help Midnight. I explained about Midnight’s back, and how we were unsure if we should retire him from ridden work. I then brought Midnight out of the paddock, and without even taking off his cotton sheet, Dr Ferguson said “Its not his back… Its stomach ulcers”. He then showed me the acupressure points that he used to assess the presence of ulcers in horses (similar to those shown in this video) and Midnight was extremely reactive. Indeed, when he tested the acupressure point near the last rib, Midnight’s back nearly collapsed in half. He said that this was due to the ulcers and was not in fact an issue with his back – I was confused, if that was the case why did the bowen therapy help? He said that it was like getting a back massage when you have period pain – it helps the symptoms but doesn’t address the cause. He told me to give Midnight 20ml of aloe vera gel daily, replace the crushed oats/lupins in his diet with a small amount of cooked barley and linseed and give him a month off work. And so our journey began… Midnight initially didn’t like me putting aloe vera gel down his throat, but within 2 days, I didn’t even need to put a head collar on and could just pop it in the side of his mouth. He quickly became more peaceful and started to stack on the weight – it was quite amazing to see and after a month, he transformed.
I don’t think I will ever forget that first ride after we had treated him for ulcers… he was the softest, most agile creature I had ever sat on – it was like getting on a completely different horse.- his head wasn’t up, and he stopped off the lightest touch on the reins and spin on a dime – His owner at the time, Allen said “I haven’t seen him move like that since he was first broken in”… we were both shocked and amazed at the transformation in the horse, and it was my first step in learning the profound effect that internal issues can have on the physical and emotional behaviour in the horse.
My journey with Midnight’s ulcers and digestive issues continued for many years, as the underlying issues were not resolved, and I had to give him aloe vera gel daily to keep the symptoms of digestive issues at bay. If I missed it for even one day, I could feel the difference, and believe me, he let me know that he wasn’t happy. However, this in itself was an important lesson to learn and led me to develop the Equine Digestion Bars and Digestive Support Elixir, in an attempt to find something that would really support and protect his digestive tract, rather than just act as a band aid. Midnight was the first of many test subjects that I used in developing these products, and I was thrilled when his digestive health became, and more importantly remained, more stable after a course of the Equine Digestion Bars, even once he came back into work. The travel and the stress of competition associated with polocrosse are an ongoing challenge for ‘ulcer prone’ horses like Midnight, but I am pleased to report that the combination of lucerne chaff and our Digestive Support Elixir before work or travel have kept any digestive issues at bay, and we are looking forward to getting back out on the polocrosse field.
