Diana's Bach Flower Journey: Timothy's Story
The Thoroughbred racehorse Timothy’s Hope was my primary equine teacher during 1985-1988 and 2003-2012. During our first year together he showed me the miraculous nature of the flower essences discovered by Dr. Edward Bach.
Timothy experienced considerable trauma during his early years at the racetrack. He had declined to the point where he had been ruled off the tracks for refusing to break out of the starting gate. In the spring of 1985 I worked with the physically sore, emotionally ragged horse at my farm in Oregon to bring him back to health.
I used nutrition, massage and fitness work. Timothy responded beautifully, gaining fitness, condition and peace of mind. I rode him in my farm arena and at the beach, where we galloped along the sand and waded in the Pacific Ocean. When I moved him to a county fair race track in the summer of 1985 for schooling, however, he became quite emotionally and physically troubled.
I moved Timothy to the facility with several of his horse friends. Being off-season, the grounds were quiet. There were only 20 to 30 horses stabled throughout a large number of barns. No loudspeaker, official morning workouts or the hustle bustle of race days existed to interrupt our leisurely routine. I thought it would be a perfect place to reintroduce Timothy to easy workouts on a real track.
Track Environment Causes Panic
Regardless of my thoughts on the subject, Timothy responded poorly. Within a day, he was so fussy he was drinking and eating only half of his normal amounts. He started suffering mild muscle cramping and constipation. In addition to these physical concerns, Timothy became increasingly emotionally unstable. He was unable to relax even when offered green grass and turnout time in a paddock. He couldn’t settle down for an evening walk with a good horse friend or a gentle massage.
In the morning, when being saddled for his morning workout, Timothy would stand locked in one place in the stall, shivering and shaking, unable to move. He was literally frozen in place with fear. It would take me 15 to 20 minutes to coax him out of the stall. After returning from the track following a mild walk, trot and canter workout with a calm horse friend, Timothy was so nervous he would start to stiffen up and look as if he was going to tie up or colic.
Bach Flower Solution
Concerned for Timothy’s health, I contacted my veterinarian, holistic practitioner Dr. Bob Anderson of Dallas, Oregon. I asked Dr. Bob to give me some kind of chemical tranquilizer for Timothy. I had never used this sort of thing in my training practice before but felt if we didn’t do something to calm Timothy’s nerves he was going to become very ill.
Dr. Bob refused my request. Instead, he handed me a brown one-ounce dropper bottle filled with what looked like water. The bottle was labeled “Rock Rose.” Dr. Bob instructed me to put one dropperful of the liquid onto Timothy’s tongue every hour for the rest of the day.
Overnight Transformation
I was very skeptical about this idea, but trusted Dr. Bob and did as I was told. I put a dropperful of the liquid onto Timothy’s tongue every hour as directed. Timothy was put to bed in a clean stall with several choices of hay and two large buckets of water. The next morning, the change was obvious. The gelding had eaten every bit of hay and drank almost all the water. He had passed numerous piles of manure and from the straw entwined throughout his mane and tail, it appeared he had spent a great deal of the night down in the straw resting.
For the first time since arriving at the facility, Timothy was eager for breakfast and much easier to saddle and take to the track for a walk and jog. The disconnected look in his eyes had shifted to a more present, settled state. With continued use of the formula over the next few days, Timothy’s pre-and post-workout shivering and cramping and his inability to relax in the track environment disappeared.
The liquid contents of the brown dropper bottle Dr. Anderson gave me were water and Rock Rose, one of the five essences Dr. Bach included in the combination formula he developed and called the rescue combination. The Rock Rose essence is known for its ability to rebalance negative emotions of deep fears, terror, and severe panic. It creates positive virtues of courage, bravery, and peace.
In his book The Twelve Healers & Other Remedies, first published in 1936, Dr. Bach placed Rock Rose in the category called: For Those Who Have Fear. In the book, Bach starts the entry for Rock Rose with these words: “The rescue remedy. The remedy of emergency for cases where there even appears no hope. In accident or sudden illness, or when the patient is very frightened or terrified, or if the condition is serious enough to cause great fear to those around.”
Profound Change Leads to Help for Others
Watching Timothy change so quickly – from a frozen, shaking, emotionally distant state back to his normal, lively, present self – sent me on a quest to learn more about Dr. Bach and the flower essences he discovered. Since that life-changing day in the spring of 1985, I’ve used the essences to calm frightened and injured animals, lift the spirits of abused or sick horses, build confidence in the performance horse and tone down belligerent pasture bullies. I’ve mixed formulas that help horses (and their owners) cope with allergies, the fear of trailer loading and stage fright during competition. The essences helped an orphan foal move out of depression and an older horse reclaim his place in the herd.
I’ve used Bach’s essences to calm myself after stressful days, injuries and the death of beloved people and animals. Injured cats, dogs and horses, birds in shock, panicked children on airplanes and troubled friends have all benefitted from Timothy leading me to learn about the essences.
Essences Help Heal Physical Injuries
While they are known to help with emotional stress, the essences are often the key to resolving a lingering physical problem. For instance, if a horse is chronically fearful or angry he will physically tense his muscles and move with short choppy strides. This physical tension interferes with the horse’s coordination and leaves him vulnerable to injury. The ongoing tension also keeps undoing the benefits of massage, acupressure and other body therapies. In many cases, once the correct flower essence is administered the horse’s emotional reactivity settles down and the physical issues will resolve.
So whether you are a one-horse owner, professional equine body worker, veterinarian, trainer or farrier, I recommend you give the flowers essences discovered by Dr. Bach a try. The people and horses in your life will benefit greatly from this gentle gift from nature.
Acknowledgment
In addition to thanking Timothy and Dr. Bob Anderson for introducing me to the world of Dr. Bach and flower essences, I wish to thank another holistic veterinarian Dr. Stephen Blake of San Diego, California, for furthering my knowledge and confidence in the use of their use.
Finally, I wish to thank and give extensive credit for my abilities with the flower essences to a fine human being and inspirational teacher, the late Jessica Bear, Ph.D. N.D., of Las Vegas, Nevada. Jessica’s books, courses, private teachings and personal encouragement gave me the tools and support to experiment with the essences with the horses in my care. The material presented here is primarily gleaned from the time I spent studying with Jessica, her books, and my personal experience.
Additional Resources
Blog Post
What are the Flower Essences Developed by Dr. Bach?
Approximately 90 years ago Dr. Edward Bach (pronounced “Batch”), an English physician and bacteriologist, developed a new system of improving health known as flower essences. These liquid products have the ability to gently transform unwanted negative emotions such as fear, depression or lack of confidence into peace and well-being.
Read the Post
Websites with Free Educational Materials
www.healingherbs.co.uk
www.bachflowerlearning.com
The Healingherbs Company in Hereford, England, creates the 5 Flower® Essence and the 38 single flower essences developed by Dr. Bach. The Healing Herbs website offers many free educational resources including the Bach Flower Learning Programme, a free, eight-part online study program that teaches students about the 38 flower essences. This program can also be accessed by going to the website: www.bachflowerlearning.com
Note: In the USA, the Healingherbs Company combination product 5 Flower® Essence is labeled and sold as the Five-Flower Formula™ by Flower Essence Services (FES) of Nevada City, California, which is the North American distributor for the Healingherbs brand of Dr. Bach’s essences.
As explained above, the company called Flower Essence Services (FES) of Nevada City, California, is the North American distributor for the Healingherbs brand of Dr. Bach’s flower essences. The Five-Flower Formula™ and Bach’s 38 single essences produced by the Healingherbs Company are available for purchase in the FES website store.
Note: This is where Diana purchases the Healingherbs brand of Bach flower essences and other supplies. She finds the staff members at FES to be very knowledgeable and helpful.
The Bach Centre is located at Mount Vernon, the cottage in England where Dr. Bach lived and worked during the last years of his life. This website has information on the 38 flower essences, and educational programs including distance learning. The website also offers free PDF books, pamphlets, and articles written by Dr. Bach and others. One free PDF contains the 1941 edition of Dr. Bach’s simple yet profound book The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies.
The website store sells the Rescue Remedy® brand of the rescue combination formula and Dr. Bach’s 38 single flower essences that are manufactured by Original Bach® Flower Remedies of the Nelson Company, London, England.
www.bachflower.com
www.directlyfromnature.com
The www.bachflower.com website includes a lot of free information about the use of Bach flower essences for humans and animals. It provides excellent descriptions of each of the 38 single essences written by Dr. Bach with keywords and indications. An online Bach flower questionnaire is also available.
The www.bachflower.com website links to an online store called www.directlyfromnature.com, which sells the Rescue Remedy® brand of the rescue combination and the 38 single Bach flower essences that are manufactured by Original Bach® Flower Remedies of the Nelson Company, London, England. This website also carries an extensive list of new and used books on the Bach Flowers.
Note: Diana purchases books from this site. The staff members are very helpful.
Copyright © 2026 by Diana Thompson. All rights reserved.
