Salisbury – A Pony in the UK

She was a surprise October birth, ‘she was born in the cold’. Her owner was not aware her mum was in foal. The mother had been bought as a riding pony and suddenly she produced a foal.

She was three at the time of the first consultation and suffered with severe sweet itch*. My client rescued her because the previous owner could not cope with the sweet itch. She rubbed herself raw to the flesh.

When I see her for the first time, all agree she is not pretty; she is somewhat disproportionate. She has a flabby abdomen. She used to bully her mother in the field.

Her sweet itch continues in the winter time although less so.

When she arrived in her new home she was very depressed but she followed the other ponies straight away.

‘She always comes to see you in the field. She waits with you until you go. It is like she is in need, she comes and asks you. She appears to take a long time to learn.

When she arrived here, after three days, she went very quiet and her eyes started to swell, then the whole of her head and neck became swollen. She developed a high fever. She was desperate to scratch when she was ill. She received steroids and atibiotics and was better in 3 days.’

The information is limited at this first consultation and I prescribe Conium 30c 4 doses in 2 days. She receives Conium 1M 3 months later because she appears to improve.

She is moved to better stables and is well looked after, trimmed properly and she develops into a gracious pony but still there is this terrible horrible eczema.

A few more consultations follow but it is difficult to obtain more information due to the limited contact Salisbury has with her owner. She is moved from one place to another in the search for somebody who can take care of her and ride her: prescriptions of Phos, Lac hum and Carcinosine do not make a real difference.

Then, based on graciousness and horrible eczema I give Psor which helps a little.

One year after the first consultation, she moves again to a different place when the care is much more ‘natural’ and regular. I now also have more accurate observations on her behaviour in the field. She cannot live without her Bowker blanket because she will scratch herself raw.

The extra information is as follows:

‘She cannot cope with the warm weather. She is angry underneath. She will push out the other horses but not the strongest one. She will fight but she lacks confidence. She wants to learn, she is interested but it is difficult to learn. Every time she is in heat she will keep presenting herself to the dominant gelding.’

Based on the new information and the initial symptoms of head swelling when she first arrived in the hands of the current owner I make the following repertorisation:

Face- swelling

Mind – anger

Mind – amativeness combined with Mind – amorous

One of the remedies that cover these three repertorial lines is Bufo.

This seemed a good remedy for this case: she was born in the cold and had a severe lymph reaction when first arrived with this new owner. She had difficulties in communicating, was a bully to her mother, had difficulty learning.

Bufo 200: 2 doses and there is a major change this time. She settles in the herd and is much happier. The sweet itch is lesser and she doesn’t need a Bowker blanket any more, just some local treatments. Over the following 3 years she receives a dose of Bufo 200 four times for a few small slips of her behaviour and to control her sweet-itch which tends to come back in the spring. Every time the sweet itch improves and there is less and less need to help with her condition; only a few crusts remain with hardly any itching.

She becomes a wonderful driving pony and is well adapted to the group of 5 horses she lives with out in the field.

A few words on Bufo:

The toad is between the fishes and the mammals: he has not benefited from full evolution and does not have the communication skills needed to be understood. Bufo (when in equilibrium) often prefers children because communication is more straight forward. His problem is usually not understanding, or being able to communicate with those around him and he reacts angrily or is frustrated and withdraws into himself. He wishes things would just function instinctively or by intuition.

Bufo is a remedy often associated with pathology of the lymph drainage system causing oedema and inflammation deep under the skin.

*Sweet itch is a very itchy allergic condition involving initially the mane and tail but often extending over other parts of the body in horses and ponies. The initiating trigger is mainly midge bites. The more severe cases will rub themselves raw to the point where all hair on main and tail can be removed and more rub lesions appear on other parts of the body.