Has anyone else done allergen\feed testing on their horse?

[virtuallyhorses]

Really interesting thing to do with your horse. Our local physio (who is also qualified in numerous other therapies) showed us how to perform feed testing on our horses yesterday. Basically looking for - foods that the horse either needs\can handle or doesn't need\can't handle based on the response given. It's based on biofeedback - I don't know if anyone else has ever done that muscle test where you stick you arm out to the side and someone tests how strong or weak your response to having the arm pushed down is - but its similar.

Anyway quick description - you need two people. Both have a small sample of the food being tested in their hands. The first person (the conduit) places one hand with the feed flat against the horse's skin then holds out their other arm with their thumb touching their little finger (fingertip to fingertip) with the hand raised so that the other fingers are pointing upwards. The second person feeds the horse the sample feed and then uses both hands to test how weak or strongly they need to pull the first persons thunb and little finger apart. -- you have to try this is sounds really weird but if you've had a go at being the conduit it's very surprising how little control you have over your reaction --

The stronger the person can hold their thumb and little finger together the better , as it gets weaker (and sometimes your fingers seem to fly apart) the more 'allergic' or undesirable this food is to your horse i.e. cut it out.

I'll try to do some photos to show this better, but it was immensely interesting in the barn yesterday as we all tested our horses with everything... supplements the lot - the horses thought this was a fantastic game
Interestingly even very small differences were detected - one horse 'needed' straight yeast but reacted badly to formulated supplements which included yeast i.e. the other bits in the formulas weren't adding anything desirable.

 

[Bay Mare]

Isn't that Kinesiology? Our Bowen therapist does it.

When she came to see Saffy the other day it was her that said to cut out all feeds except grass, hay and haylage and only to give a couple of apples a day. She also said that Saffy needed to have some cleavers. I didn't even know what they were but when I looked them up found that they suited her 'problems' ideally. She said to me that Saffy is sensitive to feeds and that she will be fine without hard feeds though we will need to reassess that when the grass quality declines again. An interesting one is that I shouldn't feed her carrots as they can cause problems with blood sugar levels. Since she's been Saffy is looking much better and strangely has put on a bit of weight!

 

[Moomin]

I had Moo allergy tested but not that way, turned out she is sensitive to cereals (barley etc), very sensitive to molasses and allergic to sugarbeet. The tester thought she would grow out of it, but 2 years on I see no signs of that, she still goes loopy if she even sniffs the sugar beet! Makes feeding her very difficult I can tell you - you try finding interesting sugar and cereal free feed!

 

[virtuallyhorses]

Isn't that Kinesiology? ...

Yes, applied kinesiology - well done Bay Mare, was having a bit of a mind blank when I wrote the original and couldn't remember the name for it.

and it's certainly not meant as a replacement for the proper allergy tests (! now my mind's gone blank on the name of those - you know the pin prick tests - oh dear I'm not sure if this is extreme blondness or extreme old age setting in ) it's more an indicator test that can be used to back up or help confirm other signs and diagnoses - like when you see a horse that's always got a podgy looking gut area or suffers repeated muscle stiffness, then this is one way that you can take a look at whether feed might be an issue.

 

[bevb]

I do it by taking a few strands of mane and tail from the horse concerned and then dowsing to find what the horse is intolerant to.
It has proved a very accurate way and solved many problems.

Bev