Imagine, for a moment, the picture of an angry horse about to attack - head up, neck stretched out, ears flat, mouth open, teeth bared and lunging forward, about to strike.
That’s how my mare Pippa normally behaves towards a horse I look after. She really doesn’t like her and lets her know. The other horse easily gets out of the way. She’s used to it.
I, on the other hand, am not used to such treatment! But, that’s what I experienced this weekend! Well, I know I wasn’t really the target of Pippa’s attack, I just got in the way.
And when there’s food involved, Pippa is really aggressive towards the other horse.
For some reason I decided to clean out the pantry. (I’m not noted for my eagerness for housework). I found a couple of packets of bread sticks, which had gone stale.
Now horses love bread and wheat products, and I hate waste, so out I went into the paddock. Give the horses a treat I thought, not realising it would be me in for the treat...
I fed Pippa first then went over to the other mare, not realising Pippa was following me. Before I could feed the horse, my right elbow was clamped! And how! I yelled out, more in shock than pain and my arm was released.
It took me a few moments to realise what had happened. I’d like to say that I hurried back to the house and my bottle of Arnica, but I didn’t. I know from experience that it’s a good thing to treat such injuries quickly, but I also know from experience that the remedies work.
There was no real pain (pain takes a while to develop after shock), just a slight grazed and bruised feeling in my arm and a weird sensation in my hand.
I took a dose straight away and waited to see what would develop. Nothing did. The weird sensation went away as did the bruised and grazed feelings. Another dose followed after about 10 minutes. I repeated the dose a couple of hours later when I felt the grazed feeling return. And I took another dose before bed, just in case. Four doses altogether.
No bruises developed, I never experienced any pain, and I wasn’t even mad at Pippa....
As a practitioner I have access to high potencies (or strengths) and I chose a high potency for the extreme situation. You can’t buy potencies higher than 30c easily, over the counter. But that just means more doses would be required. Probably every five minutes for four or so doses for the horse bite, then less frequent.
Here are a few other tales about Arnica-
A man with dyspepsia had so lost his strength he had to give up work. Years and many drugs later he visited a homoeopath who wanted to know when the dyspepsia had started. On being told that it had come on after a kick in the stomach from a horse, he was given Arnica. It wasn’t long before he was back at work, with no dyspepsia.
A woman with depression and chorea consulted a homoeopath who found this had started after she had been knocked off her bicycle and was unconscious for 24 hours. A few doses of Arnica rid her of the hangover from the concussion.
A woman had taken Arnica for a fairly minor physical injury and this had healed up nicely. Then an old scar on her hand flared up, and pus oozed out. The scar was from a bad cut from broken glass she had sustained at a party 18 years ago. So she squeezed the pus and out popped a small piece of glass... that had been there 18 years....
A ten year old boy in hospital after a head injury was still in a coma ten days later. After receiving a dose of Arnica he came out of the coma the following day.
A ten year old girl had broken her arm after falling off her pony. Since then, she remained fearful of being hurt, not daring into the playground. A year later she was diagnosed with appendicitis (severe abdominal pain and a high white blood cell count). After a few doses of Arnica, the pain stopped completely, her white blood cells returned to normal and she kept her appendix. Her behaviour returned too, to how it was before the fall.
This lovely poem was written by Phyllis Speight, who wrote a little book called Arnica.
ARNICA MONTANA
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill had a bruised hindquarter
They both had pains inside their head
And suffered much from shock
And both their little noses bled -
They’d taken quite a knock
But now they’ve both, I’m pleased to tell
Established their “Mens Sana”
And what do you think has made them well?
Why! Arnica Montana.
Arnica is made from the plant Arnica Montana also known as Leopard’s Bane or Fallkraut. It is a member of the Compositae family.
Keynotes for using Arnica are;-
- any injury minor or serious, including concussion (cause)
- overwork, over tired, over use of muscles
- bruised feeling
- fears being approached
- post operative pains, post dental extraction
- can’t get comfortable, even a soft bed feels hard
- mothers in labour and post birth
- jet lag
- shift workers who can’t sleep
- first sign of a cold
I strongly suggest you immediately purchase one (or two or three) bottles of Arnica, if you don’t already have some.
