The racehorse
When Ellen first began using iridology on equines, she used her own horses as guinea pigs. As a keen racegoer Ellen had a horse in training which she used to visit regularly.
“When I first examined his eye, I was aware of a small dot in the spleen region of the iris,” said Ellen.
Routine veterinary tests always showed that the gelding seemed to have a permanently high white blood cell count – often indicative of an infection. The vets always concluded he was suffering from a virus.
He contradicted everything the vets said, he was bright, alert and progressing well in training.
“I was convinced he wasn’t suffering from a virus as apartfrom the high white cell count, he seemed perfectly healthy. He went on to win several races before we retired him and brought him home.”
As the gelding got older, Ellen regularly examined him and noted that the dot became larger over time. “He suffered from intermittent bouts of very mild colic – nothing serious so we just accepted it was the way he was.”
As he approached 17, the horse went lame almost overnight, Ellen and her husband had a back specialist treat him. He diagnosed a disc and pelvis problem but Ellen remained unconvinced.
A short time later the horse colicked badly and Ellen called the vet. Taking into account the horse’s previous history, they made the decision to have him put to sleep. Afterwards the vet performed a post mortem to establish the exact cause of death.
The results showed two things. One that the horse had no problems with either his pelvis or any of his discs, the other was that his spleen was an incredible seven times larger than normal.
The lameness had been caused by the enlarged spleen causing discomfort when the hindleg was raised and lowered.
Ellen said: “As time progressed, the dot relating to the spleen increased in size and this is a clear example of the way in which iridology can be shown to highlight any problem areas.”
Event pony
Ellen met Philip Ghazala, managing director of Horse Health to discuss her work as an iridologist and herbalist. Philip owns several horses and ponies and invited Ellen to examine his 12-year-old daughter’s event pony.
The horse was rugged up and stabled and as Ellen examined the pony’s right eye she noted a mark that indicated a back injury. Ellen had never before seen the pony or discussed them with his owner – when she told Philip she thought the pony had suffered a back injury he removed the pony’s rug.
The pony had an 18ins scar which was the result of an injury received when it ran into a gatepost.
Philipsaid: “It was amazing that Ellen picked up on the back trauma this pony has suffered, she knew nothing of the pony’s history not even its name.”
