These days I'm definitely feeling my age - I’m now comfortably in my mid-60s - but it still feels like just yesterday that I was a fearless teenager, galloping the riding-school ponies bareback through Surrey’s woodland trails with nothing more than a headcollar. I definitely wouldn’t (and couldn’t!) do that now. My heart rate wouldn’t forgive me, never mind my middle-aged, creaky back.

But those wonderful memories are etched into me, and they’re part of the reason EquiNatural exists today.

Since those carefree pony-mad days half a century ago, I’ve watched modern 'progress' change the horse world beyond all recognition. Chemically-driven agriculture and intensive farming methods have created equine 'fast-food': shiny bags packed with refined, artificial, over-processed bulk fillers that have become the norm. And where once horses roamed acres of pasture and were only brought in for work, today's management techniques think nothing of confining them indoors for days on end - some even for the entire winter - at the mere rumour of rain. All of this has radically altered how the horse has naturally - and perfectly happily - evolved over millennia.

To me, it feels as though our horses - beautiful, sentient beings - have been slowly shifted away from what nature designed them for. And while progress can sometimes be positive, this kind of progress has made horses sicker, not healthier.

A wake-up call

My own turning point came in the mid-2000s. My beloved herd had become desperately unwell, one after another. I didn't know why, and neither did my vet, so I had to figure it out myself. I spent nights scouring books, searching the internet, and asking questions that no one seemed to answer, and what I discovered shocked me: a lot of it had to do with the myriad of different feedbags filled with ingredients now known to be gut-damaging and inflammatory.

I'd believed the hype and followed the spin - and my horses were paying the price.

Coincidentally, at the same time I’d begun exploring barefoot management, which opened my eyes to the hidden sugars and unnecessary fillers in mainstream feeds. That double-whammy sent me headfirst into studying equine health from every angle I could find. I immersed myself in every nutrition model out there, hungry to understand what was really going on inside the horse, and along the way I discovered equine experts whose words still guide me today.

One phrase in particular from Juliet Getty (Getty Nutrition) struck a chord that has never left me:

“The only way to fix your horse is to help them return to their natural state. Feeding your horse in a manner contrary to their innate physiological needs is making their body scream for help.”

This made so much sense to me - I had to bring my horses back to wellness. The more I studied, the clearer it became: horses must be fed as they evolved - with species-appropriate forage, and balanced nutrition to support their metabolisms. And above all, gut health had to be restored and protected, ensuring their natural detox systems could work at full capacity.

Herbs by accident, EquiNatural by accident

In August 2006 we welcomed Kelso, my husband’s new cob. A former show-cob, he was handsome, gentle - and plagued with problems. 'Allergy' was his middle name - brittle hooves, chronic sweet itch, headshaking, and arrived with a hacking cough. The now well-recognised seasonal pollen allergy response hadn't yet been acknowledged by mainstream veterinary practice back then; we only knew the term COPD, aka chest infection, which as far as we all knew only appeared during winter.

And yet within a week of joining our family, Kelso's respiratory system collapsed - he was literally fighting for breath. Our vet prescribed the usual cocktail of drugs - antibiotics, bute, Ventipulmin - but instead of improving, Kelso worsened.

After a month of watching him decline, the vet finally said that as he was 'old' (at 17!), it would be kindest to put him to sleep. I flatly refused. Having gone through the emotional wringer for the last month, I now turned into a fire-breathing menopausal dragon-lady (which you really shouldn't mess with), with every sinew in my body screaming that the vet had got it badly wrong.

So, I did what any reasonably educated woman on a mission to get her horse better would do. I hit the World Wide Web and started googling those whacky things called herbs.

I cobbled together a bag of respiratory herbs, having read about their medicinal potential. To most people, it probably looked like madness,  but to me it was hope.

Within 48 hours of feeding them, Kelso’s breathing eased. By day three he was bright-eyed again. By the end of the week he was back out in the field with his buddies. Kelso not only survived - he thrived for years more.

That simple blend of herbs became our BreathePlus. At first, it was just something fellow livery owners asked me to do as a favour, but soon word spread, and by 2008, I had a website called EquiNatural. I hadn’t planned to build a business - I was just trying to get Kelso better. But sometimes the universe nudges you onto a path you didn’t expect.

Hard lessons

From the Surrey Hills of my childhood to the South Downs as an adult, life didn’t get much better than trail riding. That was where I was happiest, having been 'raised' by a riding school and trekking centre.

Then, early 2000s, me and my new 6yo riding horse, Connemara Murphy (he came to me as Murf, and Murf he stayed) moved to Wiltshire with the newly-acquired husband. We rented seven acres of what we thought was perfect grazing: unkempt, overgrown, unfertilised - perfect!

Right on the edge of Salisbury Plain, we were tucked beneath the iconic White Horse of Westbury, with sweeping landscapes surrounded by miles of crops and heady yellow rapeseed. The only blot on the horizon was a concrete factory a couple of miles west, its chimney belching smoke across us on the westerly winds. We knew it was burning because the air always smelt of kids’ cap-guns.

Within six months, small changes began creeping in. Our horses grew lethargic. Hooves pulsed red hot. Repeat spasmodic colic episodes flared, and aggression surfaced. Worse, my once laid-back Murf became unrideable. I brought in trainers, saddle fitters, bodyworkers - anyone I thought might help.

Nothing worked.

It wasn’t until a further year or so of studying that the final pieces of the jigsaw came together - it wasn’t my riding; it wasn’t 'naughty' behaviour - it was the environment. Silently poisoning our horses.

When we later moved to Somerset, away from the agri-crops, the herd slowly began to recover. Pairing that fresh environment with barefoot management, track systems, forage-based feeding, and balanced minerals, their health transformed.

That was the true lightbulb moment: environment, feed, and management aren’t mutually exclusive - they’re inseparable. Ignore one piece, and the whole horse suffers.

Looking back now, and knowing what I've learned over the years, I’m still mortified at the thought of forcing Murf against his will in the school - when all the time it was me not listening to him, while he was brain-fogged with systemic toxic inflammation. I think he’s forgiven me. I hope he’s forgiven me.

A philosophy forms

Kelso's August respiratory issues had been the start of my starting to search for answers as to what was going on in our horse world. Him getting seriously ill took me towards herbs as therapeutics and had created a fledgling business which got me studying again, which in itself started to effect profound changes in how I kept my horses.

By now I was studying equine nutrition, herbalism, and functional medicine obsessively. Functional medicine’s ethos made perfect sense to me: the body is a complex, adaptive system that heals when given the right tools - natural, intelligent inputs that the body recognises and knows how to use. Not a pill for every ill, not masking symptoms, but helping the body do what it is designed to do.

From there, EquiNatural began to grow. Each horse in our herd became both teacher and case study, with each issue becoming a new insight. Kelso showed me the power of herbs for respiratory health; Murf taught me about EMS and gut dysfunction; Dinky and Cookie highlighted the challenges of PPID; Pops drew me into stress and eye health. And the deeply challenging MacAttack revealed the depths of KPU and sweet itch. Every one of them shaped the blends you’ll find on the website today.

Today

Almost two decades on, Murphy is still with me, now 31 years old and looking incredible for his age. He’s living proof that a natural approach, when done thoughtfully, can work wonders. Alongside him, every EquiNatural horse has been both my challenge and my inspiration.

I’ve since deepened my knowledge with extensive training in equine nutrition, herbal medicine, and functional medicine. My studies have included:

• Advanced Equine Nutrition and Digestion (University of Edinburgh, Dr Eleanor Kellon, Dr Christina Fritz, Dr Juliet Getty).
• Member of the Institute for Functional Medicine, focusing on metabolism, fat science, and naturopathic approaches to modern illness.
• Four years at the School of Herbal Medicine (Advanced Diploma), training as a Medical Herbalist.
• Ongoing research across PubMed, Google Scholar, and leading equine science publications.

To conclude

I’m no vet, nor do I pretend to replace veterinary medicine. I'm just an ordinary horsewoman on a life mission to study, question, and share what I’ve learned. I also believe in keeping a foot in both conventional and natural camps, knowing when to use what, staying open to new science, and keeping an honest, critical eye on the evidence.

At heart, though, I’m still that pony-mad girl who fell in love with a white Connemara called Wichy in 1965. Decades later, our horses are still the reason I get up every morning. Without them, EquiNatural wouldn’t exist; with them, they've helped build a business that’s all about helping horses return to the natural balance they deserve.

Carol Moreton
Founder, EquiNatural