It’s so important to understand that there’s more to chronic stress and depression than meets the eye. They're not just labels for a bad day; they’re real challenges that affect so many of us, including the horses in our care. For years, I’ve seen how deeply these issues intertwine with equine overall health, specifically gut, brain, and immunity issues. And with recent medical insights now emerging, I felt it was vital to explore these connections and shed light on the science behind them.

This blog isn’t just about the problems - it’s about understanding why stress happens, and how natural, evidence-based solutions can make a real difference. From exploring the intricate connections between gut health and mood, to connecting the role of inflammation and nutrition, we’ll be uncovering the root causes and looking at the natural functional paths to healing, offering genuine relief and hope - whether horse or human!

Tis the season to be jolly

Stress is everywhere. For us, it might be the demands of daily life, particularly during the chaos of this festive season with the pressure and family demands to get everything sorted for that One Big Day. For our horses, it could be isolation and neglect, or intense training, competition, travel, and expectations to perform consistently. But what we see on the surface – stress, anxiety, depression, burnout – is just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath are hidden mechanisms on overdrive -  neurotransmitter imbalances, inflammation, and gut health dysfunction.

Lets start by taking a quick look at those two little brain chemicals that we rely on for our 'calm and happy' - serotonin and dopamine. These two neurotransmitters are crucial in influencing mood and well-being, yet while conventional medicine tells us that low levels cause anxiety or depression, then hands us a pill to balance them, it rarely asks the bigger question - what is it that's unbalanced them in the first place?

This is the real question, and the answer isn’t simple. There are many factors - sleep (or lack of it), diet, stress, lack of movement – they all play a role. Yet at the core of it all is one big player: gut health.

The stress triggers - gut health and modern lifestyles

A bit of anatomy trivia for you – the gut and brain are actually formed from the same fetal tissue, and they remain inextricably connected for the rest of our lives via the gut-brain axis, a private chat line via the vagus nerve that lets them communicate back and forth with each other.

We’ve all felt it, haven’t we? That ‘gut instinct’ when something feels off, or those butterflies in the stomach before a big event. But this isn’t just a metaphor - it’s biology. It’s the gut that produces 95% of the body’s serotonin (the happy hormone) and 50% of its dopamine (the reward hormone). Which means … when the gut is inflamed, leaky, or out of balance, no surprise - the brain struggles too. Anxiety, depression, brain fog - they’re often just messages from an unhappy gut.

IBS is a great example – we think of it as a primary gut issue but it’s actually a major gut:brain issue. Studies shows 60-65% of IBS sufferers also experience anxiety or depression, compared to just 19% of those without IBS. It’s no coincidence. IBS sufferers are 3-4 times more likely to have anxiety and/or depression because both are gut:brain issues.

Inflammation - the invisible shadow

Inflammation is everywhere, sneaking into the picture whether it’s any of the anxiety, depression, stress, or burnout syndromes, and again, it all starts in the gut. Here's the 'how and why' - normally, the amino acid tryptophan turns into serotonin in the gut, but when the gut's inflamed, this process is hijacked, with tryptophan being shunted down a different pathway, creating something very different called kynurenic acid. Sounds harmless enough, except kynurenic acid can harm brain cells. Science has now advanced enough for this to show up on blood tests, so it's no wonder it’s making waves in neuroinflammatory research.

So we need to ask another question - what’s driving the inflammation?

Gut health - the epicenter of wellbeing

We now know that when we look at both body and brain health, the gut is front and centre, and no surprise really – modern life isn’t exactly gut-friendly. But when the microbiome - the bacteria in the gut - is out of balance, it creates inflammation that doesn’t just stay in the gut - it spreads systemically.

Here’s what’s triggering it - whether human or horse, and it's the same-old same-old ...

• Processed foods: High in sugar, low in nutrients, and bad news for good bacteria.
• Medications: Antibiotics, NSAIDs, and our old friend Omeprazole, significantly damage the gut biome.

In short? We end up with dysbiosis (a friendly v. unfriendly imbalance in the gut bacteria), and a whole heap of inflammation.

Let’s recap -

Gut bacteria health connects to our food choices and pharma meds, causing increased inflammation that then threatens the production of the happy chemicals in the body, therefore predisposing the body to stress, anxiety, and depression.

So there it is. There lies the relationship between inflammation and stress, through the way serotonin and dopamine are made, and their production being threatened.

These days we’re all overstimulated from the demands that modern life puts on us, so it’s no wonder we’re often tired and wired, and have a hard time knowing how to let tension naturally dissipate. All this leads to disengagement, lethargy, feeling exhausted, and often ending up no longer able to cope with the fact that we’re not coping.

Our horses feel it too. Herd squabbles, hard training, and for so many these days the immense trauma of importation - a common cry for help from so many of our clients. Imported horses often arrive deeply shut down, struggling to cope after enduring total upheaval from everything and everyone they've ever known, and often appallingly distressing journeys. My own horse, connemara Murphy, was completely shut down after his traumatic journey from Ireland; within six months of arriving in the UK he ended up in a West Sussex equine rescue, where I then found him by pure chance, rehabbed, chilled, and ready for his new life. 24-years on and we're still together!

Very often our horses are stuck in a state of high stress and hypervigilance, always 'on', while we expect them to remain on an even keel and perform the same regardless, without giving them the restoration time they so desperately need. It’s an impossible expectation, and for many horses, their only coping strategy is to withdraw completely.

Finding the root cause to restore balance

So, where do we start unravelling this mess? While simple blood work can help identify problems such as blood sugar imbalances or inflammation markers, for the last few years we've been witnessing a dramatic surge in hindgut dysbiosis - an imbalance that leads to severe and debilitating gut inflammation.

So, since everything starts with the gut, this is a logical place to begin. From here, we can assess symptoms, history, and root causes, to target specific natural therapeutic support where it’s needed most:
 

• Feed adjustments: Gut biome issues respond well when we increase fibre intake (hay), and eliminate inflammatory triggers such as haylage and processed feeds high in bulk fillers.
• Comfort and inflammation management: There's an excellent range of natural alternatives to NSAIDs, from curcumin to boswellia, and filipendula, salix and harpagophytum - see our Pain page for the full collection.
• Natural antimicrobials: Herbs like berberis and oreganum (both in our SiboCARE gut supplement), and the well-known 'oily herbs' (our BiomeTonic), target harmful bacteria while looking after the beneficial gut microbes.
• Natural anti-'biotics': Pharma antibiotics not only devastate the gut biome but are increasingly ineffective as many pathogens are now resistant. Natural alternatives like our BioCARE harness antimicrobial phytonutrients to support immunity, promote resilience, and maintain overall health without compromising gut health.
• Prebiotics over probiotics: Feeding the good bacteria already in situ is far more impactful than adding in a questionable colony member - see our WildFed which adds natural prebiotic roughage into the equine diet (and more on this in the next paragraph).
• Blood glucose dysfunction: If a horse’s blood sugar dysfunction is driving their depression/anxiety, we can deploy strategies to stabilise, i.e. restrict grass access and increase the fibre content via hay, while relooking at feed alongside appropriate nutritional supplements, such as our MetaTonic.

Probiotics vs. prebiotics - what really works?

We’ve unravelled the root causes of mood disorder and the intricate connection between gut health and mental well-being. Now it’s time to look at solutions, and in human health this is where we very often enter the world of probiotics, a special class of microbe. However, in our equine world we're still pretty stuck as there’s still no product available that truly mimics the equine gut microbiome.

So how about we have an honest chat about probiotics? Full disclosure - being an IFM member I recently attended a two-week summit where the latest functional insights on probiotics were shared, so this is all very much hot off the press.

Probiotics sound impressive - “live microbes with health benefits” - and yes, they can absolutely help in certain situations, such as speeding up gut transit time or addressing constipation. However, it’s important to note that much of the current research focuses on human studies. When it comes to equine probiotics, we’re still light-years behind in understanding. While insights from human studies provide a starting point, the equine microbiome is fundamentally different from the human biome.

Another important factor – probiotics also have to survive getting through the stomach acid as well. I’m only aware of two human brands which claim to do so, and I had to search far and wide to find them (there may well be more but I've not found them yet). But in short? The general IFM thinking is that probiotics are overplayed.

Don’t get me wrong – I take a probiotic every day without fail, but the thinking is that probiotics may be overemphasised in terms of their actual effect on the gut biome, compared to the impact of diet, lifestyle, and prebiotic fibres - it's these that shift the gut ecosystem beneficially.  I personally know for a fact that if my diet's gone a bit carb-heavy following a morning-after-the-night-before, no probiotic's going to save my gut compared to what a healthy green smoothie and a plate of fibre-rich dark green veggies will do.

Probiotics aren’t changing the gut ecosystem as such - the latest science shows that they may have a minimal impact in general on the bacteria colonies, while instead it's more about interacting with the gut cells and immune cells, creating byproducts that can be beneficial. So yes, they have their uses, but the science is now suggesting they’re not necessarily reshaping the gut biome the way that lifestyle, appropriate diet, and prebiotics do.

Prebiotics are where the magic really happens. These awesome beneficial fibres feed the good bacteria already living in the gut, and when we get this part right, we’re supporting the microbiome in a way that probiotics simply can’t match. You can add all the probiotics you like, but if you’re not feeding the bacteria already there, what’s the point?

The human research is now so advanced that it can even pinpoint specific probiotic strains for specific conditions, i.e.  bifidobacterium strain ABC helps with one issue, while lactobacillus strain XYS helps with another. 20-years ago the science didn’t know this, but fast forward to today and this is now being seen in human clinical trials.

So, do probiotics have a place? Sure. But if you’re looking to really shift the gut ecosystem and support your horse’s health, it’s about feeding more probiotically by focusing on diet, lifestyle, and prebiotic fibres - this is where the real game-changing work happens. 

Pulling this together, what does this mean for our horses? Feed the gut right with the fibres it needs from quality meadow hay, and it’ll do the heavy lifting itself.

Finding balance - herbal support for stress and anxiety

And b-r-e-a-t-h-e ... Sometimes, we all need a little extra help to calm the mind and body, and there are some great herbal allies we can use when we’re having a particularly bad headless-chicken day and we can’t get the brain to calm down. When we need to turn to something that’s going to really take the edge off,  for me it's the wonderful Passiflora incarnata, common name Passion Flower.

When you look at the research, passion flower has been shown to positively affect the GABA receptors (gamma-aminobutyric acid - the calming neurotransmitter) - it naturally supports the brain in producing more GABA, helping to calm and reset the nervous system. Acting as both an anxiolytic and a nervine, it gently soothes the central nervous system (CNS) without a sedating effect.

Passion flower also pairs beautifully with liquorice root and vervain - this is my personal go-to combo for hectic days. A herbal tea of these three works wonders for me in just 20 minutes (and actually tastes quite nice!). Together, they naturally lower cortisol and soothe the nervous system by working on the brain’s GABA receptors. (Sneaky tip: I also keep a 100ml bottle of our CalmTonic at home - three pipettefuls (15ml) usually sort me out in 10 minutes.)

Here's a little more for you:

• Passion flower: Perfect for taking the edge off without sedating. Top Tip: be aware that for our horses passion flower is now a banned substance under competition rules, hence why we've taken it out of our CalmTonic and replaced it with Verbena officinalis (Vervain).
  
  
• Valerian: Looking for something a little more effective? While valerian is well-known for aiding sleep, what it's really good for is untangling muscular tension. Blend it with passion flower (1 part balerian to 3 parts passion flower) for an effective combo.
  
  
• Mucuna pruriens: Common name Velvet Bean tree, the Ayurvedic mucuna tree produces sumptious velvety beans containing seeds rich in L-Dopa, the precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is often implicated in depressive states. Mucuna gently supports dopamine production to uplift mood and ease low-energy states, hence why we include it in our CushTonic-1 blend, as one of the known Cushing's symptoms is reduced levels of dopamine, which can lead to increased cortisol (stress). However, avoid it if your horse is on the Prascend drug, as both stimulate dopamine and we don't want to risk overstimulation.

Note: All three are available in our Shop/Individual Items - Passion flower, Valerian, and Mucuna.

The takeaway - restore the gut, calm the mind

Chronic stress, anxiety, and depression aren’t just 'in your head' – they’re deeply connected to gut health and inflammation. By focusing on the root causes, whether through diet, lifestyle, or natural therapeutic support, we can help both ourselves and our horses find balance and resilience.

As we charge through this festive season, let’s pause, breathe, and make a few small changes. Sometimes, it’s as simple as tweaking the diet, feeding the gut, or taking a moment to unwind. Here’s to a calmer, healthier Christmas and New Year – for us and our horses!