Herbal Horse

GARLIC  -  THE FACTS

By Victoria Ferguson Dip.Herb.Med.

Garlic has been used as a food and a medicine for humans for over six centuries and is now in widespread use as a feed supplement for horses all over the world.

Garlic is a fabulous package. It provides the minerals sulphur, copper, selenium, chromium, boron, zinc and molybdenum.

It is a natural antibiotic with the huge advantage that it is selective, only destroying pathogens while allowing friendly gut flora to be retained.

The famous American ethnobotanist Dr James Duke PhD states that garlic is an immune system booster, liver protective,  has anti-allergy, anti-asthma, anti-bronchitis, anti-cancer, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant actions, treats ulcers, yeast infections and sinusitis and is an important heart herb.

Duke’s praise of Garlic, he takes it himself every day, includes the facts that it is both germicidal and immune boosting, that it is better than penicillin because it contains at least 25 germ-killing compounds compared with penicillin’s one type of active ingredient, and that resistance will be less likely because the microbes are being attacked on several fronts.

Garlic is very rich in the minerals sulphur and selenium which are not coincidentally metabolic partners.  Sulphur is well known as a blood cleansing mineral that is useful in preventing and treating disease used both internally and externally.  Many areas of the world are deficient in selenium so feeding garlic is an easy way to supplement this element necessary for muscular health and fertility, which is also a significant anti-oxidant.

The list of bacteria sensitive to garlic is extraordinary and includes Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Brucella, Bacillus, Vibrio, Klebsiella, Escherichia, Salmonella and Helicobacter pylori.

Garlic contains compounds which are anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving  and reduce swelling which would explain why it is also effective in the treatment of arthritis. The fact it is effective against Helicobacter pylori is an indication why it can be helpful in the treatment of ulcers.

Bad press on feeding garlic to horses periodically surfaces. Detractors of the practice claim that garlic can cause haemolytic anaemia, a disease affecting the red blood cells. In 2004, Wendy Pearson M.Sc. (Agr.) a researcher at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, conducted a trial using four horses to see if this was true.  Two horses received the garlic as a top dressing in their feed, the others were fed a garlic-free diet. The daily amounts of freeze-dried garlic were increased to a maximum of five cups (700  grams!!!) per day over a 71 day period.  She found that the garlic eaters showed changes in their blood chemistry beginning at around the third week, when garlic intake was four cups (560 grams) of freeze dried garlic per day. Their red blood cell count fell and the red cells developed Heinz bodies, deformations in the cells caused by denatured haemoglobin.  That finding warranted termination of the study.

Although she found that large amounts of voluntarily eaten garlic negatively affected horses, Pearson says that owners and trainers are currently supplementing horse feeds with less than one-tenth of the maximum amount of garlic administered to the research horses. This is a maximum of 70 grams.

There is minimal risk of toxicity at these amounts, Pearson says, and contrary to an earlier claim that just five grams of garlic a day could be toxic, she estimates a horse would have to eat more than 100 times that amount before experiencing ill effects.

In this trial the horses that were fed garlic had it mixed with strong molasses before it was added to the feed, as it was hard to get them to eat it without the molasses. This confirmed that it would be highly unlikely that any horse would eat such a huge amount of garlic, especially as some horses will not eat it at all.

So what is the correct feeding rate of garlic to horses as part of a preventive maintenance program?  The ratio in Herbal Horse VitalisÒ is based on 15 grams per day for an average sized horse (450 kg). Feeding rates vary considerably the lowest being miniatures and the highest being heavy horses and high performance horses.

A common way of feeding garlic to horses is in the freeze-dried granule or powder form but as this has been bleached by a chemical process, this form if definitely not recommended.

Do not feed garlic which you buy in the supermarket as the shelf life of the corms is very limited and most of this garlic is already old before it reaches the supermarket shelves, do not feed minced garlic or garlic oil either as once again the power has long been processed out of these products.  Garlic infused vinegar is not a good way to feed garlic either as this limits the amount of vinegar which can be given. Also the quality of the garlic used in the infusion cannot be guaranteed.

The most effective way is to feed organic garlic which is used in Herbal Horse VitalisÒ to ensure a superior quality product.

Some horses will not eat garlic at all, in that case don’t give it to them, these animals obviously know something about themselves that we don’t!  It is an acquired taste for some horses, while others take to it immediately, and like any new feed should be introduced gradually to the diet.

© Victoria Ferguson 2010