Heal Your Horse

For a horse that has been ridden while overweight and has sustained a broken leg, the following method is used. When the animal is breathing heavily, sweating from the waist and lower back down through the hindquarters, and suffering from the fracture, begin by letting it consume roughly five or six swallows of good-quality water. Then, administer around ten mouthfuls of pure medicinal herbs. Afterwards, keep its mouth closed until the water has been fully absorbed.

When a horse is bitten by a rabid dog, first wash the bite wound with musk-infused water. རྟ་ལ་ཁྱི་སྨྱོན་གྱིས་རྨུགས་ན། རྨུགས་པའི་སར་གླ་རྩིའི་ཆུས་བསྐྲུས། ཁོང་དུ་གཏོང་བའི་སྨན་ནི། ཨ་རུ་ར་ཤིང་ཀུན་ཤུ་དག་མུ་ཟི་ནག་པོ་ སྔོ་སྐྱི་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་བྱ་རྒོད་སྤོས་སྟག་ཤ་རྣམས་ ཁྱི་སྨྱོན་རང་གི་སྤུ་བསྲེས་ཏེ་གཞོབ་བསྲེགས་ཁོང་དུ་གཏོང་། སྨན་དེ་རྣམས་མི་ལ་ཡང་ཕན། Once the animal has been provided with enough fodder and water, it will recover. Excerpted from "The Art of Horse Doctoring" ( གནའ་རབས་ཀྱི་རྟ་བཅོས་མྱོང་གྲུབ་མ། ), an ancient Tibetan manuscript from Dunhuang, P.T.1062.

Taken from 'Treatise on Horses: A Clear Mirror' ( རྟ་གཞུང་དངུལ་དཀར་མེ་ལོང་ ), this oral remedy requires mixing Chebulic myrobalan, asafoetida, calamus, black sulphur, bitter vetch fruit, larkspur, Potentilla, and hair from the rabid dog itself, and incinerating the combination. The burnt powder is then administered to the horse, and the same preparation proves effective for people as well.

The veterinarians of Tibet would surely agree, I believe, with the old veterinarian Terry in the 1938 movie "Stablemates," who, while treating the horse "Madame Q" that belonged to the little boy Mickey, said: "What I can do is treat, what you can do is be there. She knows what you are doing." They might add: "Empathy precedes technique; ease coexists with labor." In research on Tibetan equine studies, the art of horse doctoring receives the greatest attention.

This is due both to its philosophy, which best represents Tibetan equine studies by uniting technical pursuit, ethical care, and the construction of order, and to the fact that its transmitted texts and oral materials far outnumber those in other branches.

Consequently, the theoretical basis of Tibetan veterinary medicine (ཕྱུགས་བཅོས་) is naturally derived from the medical knowledge about yaks and horses. Treating livestock is seen as more than an occupation; it is considered a "righteous duty and spiritual practice ." According to myth, equine illnesses are caused by curses placed by immortals. An examination of how equine diseases were categorized in ancient times reveals that the majority could be classified as "occupational diseases" resulting from human activities.

Forty-seven entries in "Tibetan Veterinary Medicine: The Pond of Nectar" (ཕྱུགས་གསོ་བདུད་རྩིའི་རྫིང་བུ།) address the causes, symptoms, external treatments, and internal treatments of diseases in domestic horses. This text is chiefly based on "Treatise on Horses: A Clear Mirror" (rTa gzhung dngul dkar me long). The author had earlier introduced Tibetan equine studies materials centered on horse medicine (see Tibetan Equine Studies, Part I), some of which date from the period of the Tibetan Empire.

It is commonly held that the ancient Tibetan documents discovered in Dunhuang and elsewhere were composed under distinctive circumstances. From a material standpoint, however, the Dunhuang P.T.1062 Tibetan manuscript—titled "The Art of Horse Doctoring" (or the Manual of Horse Medicine)—is the oldest surviving text on the subject. Consequently, deep investigation into Tibetan equine medicine requires integrating these Dunhuang manuscripts with the transmitted corpus.

Their strong ties to contemporaneous documents from the heartland, which promote the spirit of the kingdom or Tibetan culture, are paralleled by their practical addressing of local daily needs. In "The Art of Horse Doctoring," despite the fact that some disease causes and specific therapies correspond to other transmitted classical Tibetan equine texts (such as detoxification therapies or bloodletting therapies), the content throughout is devoted to explaining how to heal warhorses and tame unruly horses.

For soldiers and civilians in places such as Dunhuang under Tibetan rule, this is closely tied to their everyday lives. Dunhuang had been a multi-ethnic region from the start, so "The Art of Horse Doctoring" could contain references to equine medicine from other ethnic groups. Nevertheless, Tibetan-origin terms still predominate in the text's language, such as the names for acupuncture points on horses and for the herbs that are required.

By contrast, the transmitted classics portray horse medicine as necessarily touching on a range of topics. Broadly speaking, these are: first, extending life; second, curing illness; third, training (i.e., health-care routines tailored to individual horses); and fourth, breeding.

Both the mare and the foal must be safe for the horse's life to be solidified (རྟའི་ཚེ་བརྟན་པ་). In essence, what is called warding off disease and sustaining health amounts to this solidification. A fine horse is precious, so birth and postpartum care are of the utmost importance. These points can be gathered by combining this with the South Asian classic "Shalihotra Samhita" (शालिहोत्रसंहित; see Tibetan Equine Studies, Part I), which was transmitted to Tibet during the later propagation period.

A birth celebration ceremony is to take place following the foal's arrival. Additionally, as recorded in the Mustang royal family's classics, one should “offer fumigation rituals for the mare in dystocia, clear her meridians, sing soft tunes, and gently guide her.” In cases of difficult birth, butter should be applied to both hands, the foal's head and hooves located, and the foal extracted slowly.

In "Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas," anthropologist Sienna Craig recorded how the people of the Mustang region aid in childbirth and perform blessings on foals, a practice shared across Tibetan areas.

In Tibet, the analysis and treatment of equine ailments are not based solely on the disease's location and symptoms; practitioners have also constructed a complete theoretical framework and treatment procedures for the art of horse doctoring. This is evident from the fact that nineteen-year-old Sienna, having formed close bonds with local veterinarians, fully understood that "the veterinarians not only understood equine physiology and psychology but also applied various concepts from Tibetan medicine (such as the three nyepa) to specific situations.

According to the renowned physician Drakla Norbu (སྟག་བླ་ནོར་བུ་; 1889-1958), "Treating a horse is like treating a person." This view aligns with a saying that appears in slightly different forms: "One must tell internal diseases from external ones, recognize hidden ailments, remember all acupuncture points, and be skilled in the use of medicines; lacking this knowledge, one cannot treat horses." It is for this reason that the people of the plateau expect veterinarians to meet the same exacting standards as physicians who treat humans.

A Tibetan proverb states: "A skilled veterinarian makes the region renowned" (ཕྱུགས་བཅོས་པ་མཁས་ན་ཡུལ་འདི་སྙན་གྲགས་ཆེ།), yet a practitioner who truly excels at healing horses is even more uncommon, a notion that echoes modern veterinary science. Every creature possesses a soul, so one should treat and heal with compassion. This piece is adapted from SuolangWangqing's blog.