The Holistic Equine

"Insects are attracted to weak energies," and other call-me-when-the-space-shuttle-has-landed remarks dilute this reasonable effort to move alternative medicine into the equine veterinarian field. Anyone who's spent time with horses has seen plenty of flies congregating around the insect equivalent of the water cooler (a horse's butt) and knows that "weak energies" are not the major draw here. The entire program--first in a projected series--consists of often poorly edited interviews with holistic-minded veterinarians on various treatment modalities, including acupuncture (and, yes, there's a demo), herbology (including ma huang and licorice root, with--tsk, tsk--no warnings about either), parasite management (using the Simon & Garfunkel treatment of "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme"), homeopathy (a quite confusing section, with its repeated insistence that it doesn't matter whether you give your horse one tablet or the whole bottle--a nonsensical bit of advice), and chiropractics. Aimed specifically at veterinarians who treat horses--as opposed to horse owners--this low-budget, slightly flaky, production is not recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)