The Five Horse Types in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine by Dr. Ina Gösmeier

c 2014 (Appears to be self-published) 68 pages.

ISBN 978-3-00-0247569-6

One of the fundamental concepts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is that all beings belong largely to one of the five basic elements—fire, earth, metal, water and wood. Knowing which of the elements most influence an individual can help TCM practitioners better determine the health challenges that individual is most likely to face, as well as how to best address them.

Author Dr. med vet Ina Gösmeier is an accomplished German veterinarian and equestrian. Her vet practice is based on TCM, applied kinesiology and Chinese Herbology, and she has travelled with the German team to international championships, enhancing their performance using naturopathic methods. According to the bio in her book, she also teaches, writes and lectures extensively on the subject of holistic medicine in animals, particularly acupuncture and acupressure.

I am not prepared to give up Western medicine but I admit that TCM, with its whole body approach to healing, has a certain logic to it. Rather than just focusing on specific symptoms or disorders, TCM considers the overall balance of chi (sometimes spelled qi), which is an essential life force in the body. Acupuncture/acupressure, for example, seeks to rebalance the chi and restore its harmonious flow along the body’s meridians.

In this quick read book, Dr. Gösmeier explains that horses can be classified into one of five types—Gan/Liver, Shen/Kidney, Pi/Spleen, Xin/Heart, and Fei/Lung– and that identifying horse type can help vets practicing TCM to better predict the course and duration of a disease. Based on certain symptoms for each type, it is possible for a practitioner to identify when an animal is out of balance and in need of treatment. Sometimes these symptoms are behavioral, and have seemingly nothing to do with the source of the problem. Horses are classified by considering their mind/character, social behavior, rideability and physical characteristics.

Each horse type has some positive and some negative characteristics. Some horses show traits of more than one type.

If you are intrigued by these concepts, and want to learn more—do not seek out this book. Originally written in German, it is possibly one of the poorest quality translations I have ever read. I am sure that trying to explain such unique and abstract concepts to any Westerner takes first, a fair degree of comprehension and understanding of the concepts to begin with, and second, requires the ability to break them down into smaller pieces. I would think that each word is carefully chosen, each phrase crafted to impart better clarity and meaning.

Quite simply, these concepts are lost in the translation. But it isn’t just the concepts—it is basic phrases and expressions too, things which someone who is bilingual enough to do a translation should be able to articulate more clearly. It is almost as though someone fed the document through Google Translate and hoped for the best.

I can only imagine that in the original German, this book would be much more enlightening!

1/5 stars