If you’ve searched for ‘horse hair testing’ recently, you may have found yourself more confused after the search than before it. Hair testing. Hair analysis. Hair assessment. Mineral analysis. The terms are used almost interchangeably online — but they describe very different things, with very different results.

This article explains what horse hair testing actually is, what Angela Davison’s unique Hair Assessment Protocol involves, and why the quality of the practitioner doing the assessment matters every bit as much as the method itself.

“All of these services are only as good as the knowledge and experience of the practitioner.” — Angela Davison, ATMS Fellow & Equine Herbalist

First: Not All Horse Hair Testing Is the Same

This is the most important thing to understand before you invest in any hair-based service for your horse.

There are broadly three categories of horse hair testing available today:

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)

This is a laboratory-based analytical test. A sample of your horse’s hair is sent to a lab and chemically tested to measure mineral content, heavy metal levels, or toxins present in the hair shaft. It’s a physical measurement — science in a test tube.

Different laboratories test for different things, and the results are only as useful as whoever interprets them. Some services include interpretation in their fee; many don’t. Always ask.

Basic Hair Testing Services

There is a growing range of hair testing services — many operating online — that use dowsing, pendulums, or simple energetic scanning to return a list of suggested supplements or deficiencies. Methods, qualifications, and the depth of information returned vary enormously.

Angela Davison’s Hair Assessment Protocol — A Different Animal Altogether

Angela’s approach doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. Developed from scratch and refined over more than 30 years, it is a proprietary system that works on an entirely different level — and with a depth of questioning that goes far beyond standard testing.

It is, in Angela’s own words, unlike any other.

The Origins of the Hair Assessment Protocol

Angela Davison has been a practising medical herbalist since 1988. Long before hair testing became a recognisable term in equine health circles, she was working with horses using muscle testing — a technique requiring her to be physically present with the animal, with another person acting as a surrogate to channel the horse’s responses.

It worked. But it was logistically demanding and hard on her partners, who were pressed into service holding out their arms for dozens of questions per session.

She wanted something better. Something that could work at a distance. Something that would let her access the horse’s deeper health picture not just surface symptoms, but the underlying causes, the emotional and energetic layers, the nutritional picture unique to that individual horse.

She began experimenting with hair in the early 1990s. She looked at Vega machines, radionics equipment, crystal work. She attended workshops with respected practitioners. She wrote out on a board every system and organ she wanted to test, and she developed, painstakingly, over six to seven years,  a method that worked.

“I wanted to use the hair of the horse and work energetically with it, accessing the horse’s higher self rather than the conscious mind.” — Angela Davison

By 1998, she was confident enough to offer the hair testing protocol in practice. It has been evolving ever since.

What Angela’s Hair Assessment Actually Involves

When Angela receives a hair sample from your horse, she doesn’t run it through a machine. She works with it energetically, accessing information through the hair that the horse’s conscious, reactive mind would not necessarily reveal in a standard clinical setting.

If that sounds unusual, Angela is the first to acknowledge it. She’s heard the scepticism and she understands it. We live in an era of peer-reviewed studies and diagnostic imaging, and anything outside that framework can seem hard to credit. But she also has more than 35 years of clinical results, a loyal following of clients whose horses have genuinely improved, and a depth of questioning that is simply not possible through any other method she has encountered.

The protocol began with around 30 to 50 questions per session. Today, it involves closer to 500.

What Gets Assessed

A full Hair Assessment with Angela covers:

• All major organs and body systems — checking for imbalances and when those imbalances were established
• Individual nutritional ratings — what supplements and nutritional supports suit this particular horse, not a generic recommendation. These individual nutrition ratings can then be used by an independent Equine Nutritionist if necessary.
• Joint ratings — identifying which joints may be coming under stress before problems become obvious
• Hooves, connective tissue, and muscle health
• Physical energy and mental/emotional energy — two very different things in a horse
• The horse’s environment — including paddock, feed, and management factors
• The rider or handler — because a horse’s ‘misbehaviour’ is often a direct mirror of confusion, inconsistency, or tension coming from the human end of the relationship
• The discipline the horse is being asked to perform — because not every horse is built or suited for every job

That last point is one Angela feels strongly about. If a horse is being asked to do something it physically cannot do, or is temperamentally unsuited for, the owner and trainer are — in her words — fitting a square peg into a round hole. The assessment helps identify that, often before it becomes a welfare or performance crisis.

Causal Reasons — Going Deeper Than Symptoms

One of the most significant aspects of Angela’s protocol is that it doesn’t stop at ‘what is wrong.’ It explores when an imbalance was established in the body and, often, why.

This distinction matters enormously in practice. A horse presenting with recurring digestive issues, poor coat condition, or anxiety under saddle may have a very different underlying cause to another horse showing identical symptoms. Treating the symptom without addressing the cause is why so many horses cycle through the same problems repeatedly.

Angela’s background as a herbalist gives her the treatment vocabulary to match what the assessment reveals. She works with a library of herbs — choosing not the first-line option, but the specific one or two that are indicated for this horse at this point in time. She has, for example, six major liver herbs. The assessment will indicate which one is appropriate for the individual. That precision is what makes bespoke herbal formulas different from buying an off-the-shelf blend.

Hair Testing vs Blood Testing vs X-Ray — A Useful Comparison

Angela’s take on the matter is direct: hair testing, blood tests, X-rays — they are all tools. The results are only as good as the operator running the test and the knowledge base of the practitioner interpreting them.

Blood tests capture a moment in time and can miss chronic, low-grade imbalances that haven’t yet crossed diagnostic thresholds. X-rays reveal structural issues but say nothing about energetic or nutritional states. Angela’s hair assessment works in a different dimension — longitudinal, energetic, and individualised — and is most powerful when used as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, conventional diagnostics.

What it offers that most other methods don’t: the ability to work at a distance, to access the full picture of body, mind, and spirit in a single session, and to indicate not just what is happening but when it started and what may have caused it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Horse Hair Testing

How does horse hair testing work?

In Angela Davison’s Hair Assessment Protocol, a small sample of your horse’s mane hair is used as a medium to access energetic information about the animal’s health. Rather than testing mineral content chemically, Angela works with the hair to assess around 500 questions spanning organs, body systems, nutrition, joints, emotional health, and more — returning a detailed, individualised health picture and herbal treatment plan.

What is the difference between hair testing and hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) for horses?

Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) is a laboratory test that measures mineral content and heavy metals in the hair shaft chemically. Angela Davison’s Hair Assessment Protocol is an energetic assessment system — entirely different in method and scope. HTMA gives you data about chemical composition; the Hair Assessment gives you a whole-of-horse picture including organs, emotions, nutrition, joints, and causal health history.

What does horse hair testing reveal?

Angela’s protocol assesses all major organ systems, individual nutritional requirements, joint health ratings, hoof and connective tissue condition, physical and emotional energy, the influence of the rider or handler, and whether the horse is suited to the discipline it’s being asked to perform. It also works to identify when imbalances were established in the body and potential causal reasons, going well beyond surface symptoms.

Can horse hair testing be done remotely?

Yes. One of the key advantages of Angela Davison’s Hair Assessment Protocol is that it works at a distance. You simply send your horse’s mane hair sample (with a short history), and Angela conducts the full assessment from her practice in Ballina, NSW. Results and a bespoke herbal formula recommendation are returned to you without the need for travel or in-person appointments.

Is herbal medicine safe for horses?

When prescribed by a qualified, experienced practitioner, herbal medicine has a long and documented history of safe use in horses. Angela Davison is an ATMS Fellow and accredited medical herbalist with over 35 years of clinical experience. She creates pharmaceutical-grade bespoke herbal formulas tailored to the individual horse, not generic blends and monitors progress over time.

How is Angela Davison’s Hair Assessment different from other horse hair testing services?

Angela’s protocol was developed from scratch from the early 1990s and refined over 35+ years of clinical practice. It involves approximately 500 questions per session, covering body, mind, and spirit, a depth that most hair testing services cannot approach. Angela is also a qualified medical herbalist, meaning she can translate assessment findings directly into a bespoke treatment plan. No other Australian service combines these elements.

A Note on Credentials and Experience

Angela Davison is an ATMS Fellow, one of the most senior credentials awarded by the Australian Traditional Medicine Society and has been a practising medical herbalist since 1988. She was also one of Australia’s first female jockeys, riding 366 winners during her racing career. She understands horses from the inside out: not just as a clinician, but as a horsewoman.

Her Hair Assessment Protocol is offered to horses both across Australia and internationally.

If you are wondering whether a hair assessment is the right next step for your horse, the most useful thing to do is read more about the protocol and the process and then reach out with your questions. Angela is happy to talk you through whether it’s the right fit.

“The horses did and continue to teach me most days.” — Angela Davison

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