Saddle Bag First Aid

Cathedral Lake and peak

The Chinese adage says “Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness.”  This is one of my favorite Chinese sayings. For me that means having a plan - being prepared. I have long kept a small Chinese herbal first aid kit in my purse, car and horse trailer “just in case” and have had many opportunities to use it. Folks comment when I pull it out - Wow! It is lucky - you have that! No, not really, I’m simply prepared. If I win the lottery - that’s lucky!!!!

As luck would have it I did have the opportunity to use my herbal first aid kit this summer, several times, during a fantastic horse camping week in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.  

Tuolumne Meadows sits at 8600 feet elevation and offers breathtaking views of granite domes, waterfalls, lakes and clouds. It is an incredible place to ride but camping and travel in the high country can have its challenges. Trails can be steep and rocky and our horses experienced the inevitable bumps, cuts and bruised soles. One mare sustained rope burns on her legs when a bear visited camp in the early morning. She became cast between two trees and tangled in the high line.  

Roco receives a topical 

application 

of Yunnan Bai Yao

powder to stop bleeding 

on the trail

My Whole Horse herbal first aid kit certainly came in handy and like the Boy Scout motto I was prepared. Poultices were made for the bruised soles, and rope burns and Yunnan bai yao was applied to bleeding cuts and liniment soothed sore muscles. 

Traditional uses of formulas like the ones in my first aid kit go back to the wars and conflicts of ancient China. They evolved out of triage on the battlefield.  Battlefield medicine consisted of plasters, pills, powders, liniments and salves for stopping hemorrhaging, bleeding, preventing infections and healing wounds.  These time-tested formulas and now directly benefit modern horses and riders. 

Chinese first aid formulas can help you solve some simple problems on your own, help you buy some time while you get to a veterinarian or save a life if you can’t get to the help you need.