Research Lavender as Aromatherapy for Horses

From Wikipedia.

Some trainers have claimed that the scent of lavender acts as a natural calmer for horses. One trainer used small dabs of diluted pure lavender (purity is important) to the high energy, reactive horses in a clinic. Even the heads of the more energetic horses lowered and they seemed calmer. The trainer said my horse Blessi was already quite calm and didn't need the scent of lavender. The audience persuaded her to try a bit, at which point Blessi started to follow her like she was covered in peanuts.

Research backs her up. Previous research found that horses exposed to stressors such as blasts from air horns exhibited significant reduction in stress when receiving sniffs of lavender from diffusers as shown by quicker returns to normal heart rates.
Researchers at University of Arizona looked at lavender aromatherapy in the absence of stressors. They measured heart rate and variability of dressage horses standing in a paddock.

""The heart rate didn't change; what changed is what's called the parasympathetic component of heart rate variability," Baldwin explained. "One of the parameters of heart rate variability is RMSSD, and that represents parasympathetic input, which is the relaxation part of the autonomic nervous system. If RMSSD goes up, that indicates the horse is relaxed. We found that when the horses were sniffing the lavender, RMSSD significantly increased compared to baseline.""

"The data were supported by the horses' observed behavior, which often included relaxation signals such as neck lowering and licking and chewing while the lavender was being inhaled." The relaxation persisted as long as the horse smelled the lavender.

They concluded that if a horse is nervous under conditions like shoeing that the owner could rub dab of lavender oil on her hands and let the horse smell them during the shoeing process.

Hum, I wonder if Blessi would like lavender sugar cookies?  I sure do.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180728084141.htm