Watching a horse do yoga stretches-and clearly love it, to boot-is just about the coolest thing you've ever seen. But hey, if it's beneficial for humans, then why not for animals like Jimmy, a 20-year-old thoroughbred?

This has been Yvonne Allen's rationale for using not just stretching techniques but also other holistic therapies to restore Jimmy to whinnying health since she bought him at a Vancouver racetrack 17 years ago. For the first few years, she tried conventional health care with her 1,300-pound companion, but the horse eventually developed hives and allergies due to an unnatural diet with too many synthetic feeds and sugars, and started acting angry and miserable.

Allen decided enough was enough, and vowed to "naturally keep" her horse-as naturally as is possible in a domesticated setting, anyway.

The first thing she did was remove his shoes, then began maintaining his feet with trimming and filing techniques that would mimic the healthy hoof of a wild horse. In the years that followed, Allen has added aromatherapy, massage, acupressure, Bach flower remedies, electric microstimulation, light therapy, reiki and shiatsu to her arsenal of therapeutic modalities, and Jimmy has thrived. When other horses in the stable where Jimmy is kept have been run down with viruses or parasites, natural remedies have helped keep his immunity high and innards clear.

A growing problem in conventionally kept horses is insulin resistance, just like in humans, which is the result of overfeeding of starches and sugars. Inflammatory and painful hoof problems are often the result, but Jimmy's unsweetened diet of hay along with nutritional supplements keeps his hooves in good shape.

Allen teaches one-day equine horse shiatsu massage courses, and is also developing her own product line for horse and rider called At Ease Natural Scents (see www.ateasehorsecare.com).

Use of natural therapies for our animal companions is a growing trend. After numerous pet food recalls (and reported on in previous issues of Health Action magazine), organic and/or raw pet foods have also jumped in popularity.

What's good enough for us is good enough for our pets, is the rationale. Allen, for one, would agree. And judging by Jimmy's contented whuffling as he receives one of his regular aromatherapy and Equine Touch treatments, he'd agree, too.

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