My 6 year old son loves all things cowboys: horses, chaps, boots, rifles, John Wayne etc. He is known for his love of cowboys as he rarely leaves the house without his spurs and hat. 

When he was 3, we obtained an old mini horse named Shadow for him. True to pony form, Shadow was a stinker and liked to be pushy. He wasn’t mean, just clear when he had enough. One day as my son was walking the pony, Shadow pulled my son off balance, and he tripped and fell in such a way that he ended up under a pony hoof. When my son got to his feet, crying of course, I examined him and found a bruise.

I grabbed my jar of comfrey salve and generously applied a thick layer all over the injured area; within minutes my son’s crying was subsiding and he was interested in playing. I remembered Dr. Christopher saying that the skin will absorb everything it needs, so every hour I checked the injury and applied another thick layer of salve. Each hour went by, and the skin was soaking up the salve like crazy. Soon bedtime rolled around, and I began to doubt that the skin would stop absorbing this salve - I had almost applied an entire jar! While my boy slept, I dutifully applied the salve hourly. About 11pm I noticed the salve didn’t absorb. I thought, “well that’s interesting,” and applied more salve “just in case” and then headed to bed myself. 

The next morning I went to check on him and salve was everywhere, pjs, bed sheets, etc. I should not have applied that last round of salve - it would have saved me a pile of cleaning!

I checked his injury, and it had a very faint yellow color surrounding the area, like an “old” bruise color that is almost healed. I was very surprised as this injury should have been a black and blue bruise at this point. I used my fingers to gently press on the “sore spots” to gauge my son’s response. I would ask, “Does this hurt? Is it sore? Does it hurt a tiny bit?” My continued questioning received the same “Nope, no mama, it doesn’t hurt.” I let him go to play and checked on him often. Each time I checked on him I made sure he had a tiny bit of salve on the injured area, but I noticed his skin did not use it like it did the day before. By bedtime that evening my son had no trace of the injury. I can guarantee that a horse stepping on you will most certainly cause a big bruise and will hurt for 3 days. I was so impressed that Dr Christopher really did mean it when he said the skin will absorb what it needs...just be prepared to use a lot of herb for a bad injury! 

Nina Woodgate is a Master Herbalist graduate of the School of Natural Healing. She can be reached at nlm17a@yahoo.com.