Pony Self Selection Day

Munch Self-Selecting

We all had the most wonderful day, yesterday.  We had a special lady, Fiona Habershon, come to visit the yard, who specialises in Zoopharmacognosy...also known as self-selection for animals.  Fiona has a wonderful array of plants and essential oils, which the ponies can choose to help them address not only physical problems, but also emotional difficulties too.  (For those of you you haven't come across Zoopharmacognosy before, it is not a replacement for veterinary diagnosis or treatment, but is complementary to it).

Munch was a very keen first volunteer.  When Fiona arrived,  Munch was already trying to get himself into one of Fiona's boxes before she'd even made it across the yard!  Fiona started with different plants to see what Munch wanted to select.  Some of the other ponies headed over, near to where we were, all wanting their turn!

After learning about the plants and watching Munch's selections and reactions, Fiona moved onto looking at the essential oils and explaining how they can be used to help with emotional difficulties, and can be incorporated into behavioural training.  Fiona was able to work with Topsy and Tufty with the oils, and both ponies made huge steps forward yesterday, and you could see Topsy particularly wanting oils that relate to fear, and fear of pain etc.

We finished with a group exercise in the yard with all the ponies and volunteers, using the oils to see what the ponies selected, and finding out which ponies needed which oils.  Fiona kindly left us with a selection of the most needed oils.  It was wonderful to see Tufty loving all the human attention by the end of the day, wanting lots of stroking, particularly from Graham, who I think is her new best friend!!

A big thank you to Fiona, who travelled a very long way to visit us, who donated her time, skills and essential oils to the ponies for the day.  We all learnt so much and are looking forward to putting our newly found skills into practice.  We hope that Fiona will visit us again next year!

If you'd like to find out more about self selection and Fiona's work, please visit Fiona's website: http://www.fionahabershon.com/

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