Well, I have never really heard of a natural deworming product. I don't know of any. But I really don't think that there is anything natural about deworming medicine. To prevent worm and parasitic growth I would just keep your horses on a good diet, as much grass as possible, if you keep your horse in a small pasture/paddock you could pick up their droppings once a day. And keep their stalls clean if you keep yours in stalls. If you really want to, you could buy some disinfectant spry and use that once a month on the stall or more regular if you choose. Keep their water resource clean if you can. And get your horses on a regular deworming schedule. Never use the same medicine. Make sure you rotate and use different brands. Or else your horse will become immune to it and then it will be worthless. If you keep your horse in a large stable, you could choose to do the heavy duty deworming were you wouldn't have to do as much compared to the regular deworming paste. Like any med. make sure you follow the directions and give enough med. according to the weight of your horse. Hope this helps!

Thank you Syd. for the info. All your suggestions are great and certainly common sense stuff. My concern is the chemicals that horses get with the chemical dewormers. I was curious to see if anyone has been successful with homeopathic, herbal stuff that maybe out there.

In my area (South Italy) we have a sort of thin cane that many consider as a good natural dewormer. I don’t know the scientific name but I could try to find it out or, maybe, send you a picture of it, if you want me to. I have a lot in my farm and my horses love it. Being new to horses, at least new in the way of not using them as I use my car, I have decided to skip next deworming scheduled for mid January and see how the thin cane works. I am not fond of chemical and I try to avoid them in any way. However, as Syd well pointed out, much depends on how and where you keep your horse(s). Consider that I keep mines free in a seven hectares paddock and I try to give them a life style as close as possible to the one that they would have in nature (where they do not suffer from worms, apparently). I keep them unshod, I feed them on the ground and they drink water from natural ponds (no clear water at all!); I am even building now a “paddock paradise” as sketched by Jamie Jackson in his book, in order to keep them moving all the time and off of too green pastures. Apparently this “natural boarding” is giving good results, since the horses are healthy, are much more relaxed now then when they came in six months ago, theirs hoofs are growing “natural” with little or no trimming, and I have with them a very pleasant understanding although riding them very seldom and having not had the chance to practice with them Monty’s teachings as yet. I’ll get back to you in a couple of months with the results of my “homeopathic” thin cane

Yes if you can get the name or pic.it would be great. Horses where I live are mostly kept in a stall, not sharing food, water or gravel with their neighbors; they are turned out in the designated areas and live a pretty unnatural life if you know what I mean. There are some products that show up when doing a web search but I would like a first hand experience and recommendation from the panel.
Thank you Bruno for your offer with pic and/or name.

I'll get a picture and try to have the name.

The scientific name is “FRAGMITES COMMUNIS”. You can find nice pictures on Google. Kindly bear in mind that I still have no personal evidence that it really works as dewormer.

Thanks so much Bruno and will anxiously await the verdict!! :-)

I use "Worm Check" and the "Just Add Oats" and the oil from http://www.thenaturalvet.net/cbuckley
and do a fecal every three months from www.horsemenslab.com.
I have not used a chemical wormer in about 5 years and my gelding has tested negative ever since I stopped using chemical dewormers & started using these supplements.

Thank you Christine for the info. I like the non-chemical approach very much.

I'm sorry I can't be of much help in regards to your question, but I noted a couple of (common) misconceptions about deworming in the thread and just wanted to add some facts.

Regarding immune to the effective chemicals in dewormers: Syd is right in pressing the importance of rotating brand of chemical used. But it is not the *horses* that get resistant, it's the *parasites*. Just like viruses that grow more resistant to antibiotics with each new generation, so the problem is actually global rather than local - and local (regional)rather than as in one single horse.

Wild horses most certainly have a problem with parasites; it's even a natural - if unfortunate - state for them to have these parasites, and some will fare badly and die from it.
However, Mother Nature is very wise with her design. Since no parasites would benefit (=survive) if their host dies on them, most horses build up a sort of resistance to their "invaders", keeping the infestation to a moderate extent which and their bodies will handle pretty well. (In an adult, healthy horse the occurrence of eggs generally won't show up as more than low - <50 eggs/gram - in a fecal analysis.)
Also, wild horses roam over large distances and the fields they leave are often grazed by other species (bovines) who are immune to horse-parasites (and vice versa), so the pressure of parasites in one place is kept fairly low. Small, man-made paddocks, on the other hand, usually becomes over-infested - hence the unfortunate need for parasite control.

Deworming a horse will never rid it completely of parasites; it is mainly done to protect *other* horses from getting infected, or to keep a new field as clean as possible.
The horses at the biggest risk are young foals, and old or infirm horses, as their bodies can't fight the worms as well, so these are in need of some "chemical" help when kept in a domesticated state.

As for how well "natural" supplements work, I haven't seen any scientific proof to back that up, but I do hope there is something that does work!

It was popular belief here (in Sweden) that sallow or aspen (salix) bark worked -(apparently they contain acetylsalicylic acid)- but that has been disproved in recent studies.
I've also heard of people using some sort of liquid garlic, but I would hesitate to use garlic, as overuse of it can cause thinning of the blood.

Garlic granules in the feed is good

Good pasture management: pick up manure in smaller yards/fields. Harrowing, or spreading the manure, in the larger paddocks is a good way to make sure the parasites cannot lay eggs etc.

Thank you everyone for the info. My research actually shows garlic to be hazardous to horses. Do you have any references for the garlic recommendation. Of course, when it comes to horses at least, there seems to be pros and cons for everything that is recommended and I thank you for your suggestions very much.

I have used a herbal formula that is made for people. I apporached the company that make it and bought it in powder form to add to a daily feed. My horse has been on it for a year, it is the only thing that keeps him worm free and I don't have to worry about the parasites developing resistance or chemical build up.
With the chemical wormers he is refinfestated only a couple of weeks later. What I like about this method is by dosing daily you are addressing the problem quickly thereby not allowing a build up of eggs, larve and live worms to develope then hitting it hard with toxic chemicals every 3 months. This wormer kills every type living anywhere in the body and has a long established history of safe use by people. It also addresses fungal and yeast build ups.
I wouldn't use anything else now.

Hi mariebonner, could you share the name of that product?
Very interesting

Hi Sasha
please email me for more information.
mariebonner@talktalk.net
thanks