Are you a trend follower ???

Yes I'm a trend setter - but rather that than being cruel. Watching my sisters poor horse gallop around and around and around the field all summer in the heat is not pleasant. Stick a rug on him and he can relax and eat the grass.

I also love fly masks, both for the protection from flies and sunburn. How much fun is it for a horse to sit in a field for approx 14 hours a day nodding its head non stop?
 
I have a Boett for my sweetitch cobbie but thats all. Mine are naked all year round..come rain or shine...
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Bought one for bert last year and he hated it!

Wouldn't let me near him with the killer bunny mask and sulked by the gate all day. he wore it for a few days and then I took it off him. He was in a paddock by water at the time which meant there were a few more flies about but he was definately happier without. I now drown him in phaser fly spray and I dare anything flying creature to come near him in that, it is leathal!
 
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we don't get bot flies but what we do get is a plague of crab flies

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Are you in the New Forest by any chance? CraB flies seem to be unique to the New Forest as far as I can tell.
 
Only one of my horses wears a fly rug (rambo hoody) and he absolutely has to wear it because he's horribly allergic to fly bites. I try really hard to give him a few naked days every year but this spring he had to go straight from a lightweight with neck to his sweat-itch hoody.

I have been considering getting a rug for one of my others as he keeps cantering around to try and get away from the flies but I wouldn't put one on just to follow a trend.
 
How can a fly rug possibly help with bot flies? These flies generally hover around horses legs.

I worm against bot flies and I have to say it really does make a huge difference.
 
Did buy one for my cob........wore it for a few times....kept slipping so waste of space,and he always seemed so warm in it.....so fly mask and plenty of fly spray is all he wears now!
 
I have a bug rug, but not for the flies- I have one for my coloured because he gets sun burned on his white bits, which is usually around where his breastplate goes, so it is in his best intrest to have one one. Wills and the guys up at Nethermill have them on for flies, and because wills bites everything he can reach, horse or not so.
 
For me it depends on the horse...One of my horses has to wear a fly rug. It's not a trend it's a necessity. If he doesn't have it on he spends all day trying to run away from the flies - briefly stopping every 10mins by the gate, calling, in the hope that someone will rescue him. I hate to see him stressed, constantly running around biting and kicking himself. It doesn't matter how much fly spray I put on nor which brand he just won't settle without his rug.

My other horse isn't as sensitive and is quite happy to be naked. People always ask why one wears a rug and one doesn't - particularly on hot days when I've been called "mean" for using a fly sheet. But he gets less sweaty under a fly sheet than tearing up and down the field in a state.
 
I spent years poo-poohing fly rugs, condemning them as a fad, but after about days of watching my horse literally running from some vicious flies and trying to heal the sores he developed from their bites I bought one and his relief was practically instantaneous. His rug was covered in horrid black flies but he was visibly much happier.

It didn't stop the bots of course, and he still got bitten around his sheath but it really did help him. Many of the other horses in his field weren't affected at all, or just didn't taste the same, I don't know, but if I had a horse that was bothered by the flies now I would try one again if it meant they were more comfortable.

In the same vein, I've used fly fringes for years and this summer I have at least one horse that will have to wear a fly mask as she has particularly sensitive blue eyes.
 
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How can a fly rug possibly help with bot flies? These flies generally hover around horses legs.

I worm against bot flies and I have to say it really does make a huge difference.

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Have you not ever seen them lay eggs in the mane? The b*ggers will target the whole body, or maybe theyre just special Withshirian ones....

We worm against bots too but it isnt very effective when theres 35 tbs that are never wormed living right next door.
 
When fly rugs first appeared on the market I rushed out and bought Rambo Flybusters for my two horses. My tb wore hers happily although I noticed quite a few flies did get underneath the rug. My tbx hated hers and wouldn't come anywhere near me if she saw me holding it in the field!!

Because of the reasons mentioned, I don't use fly rugs on either of them now. I do use fly masks though and they both seem to like wearing them. Also apply plenty of repellent and daily poo picking does seem to help keep the fly population down.
 
I don't follow trends, get fed up of people that only buy things because everyone else has one! I didn't use a fly rug before he got sweetitch last year, I prefer him to be ablt to get a good roll and feel the sun on his back. But he has to wear his rug over night everynight, and through the day if the midges are out
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. The flies are never that bad up here, its only the clegs that really irritate the horses.
 
I do use fly spray and masks when the flies are really bad but mine don't wear rugs, two of the horses who suffer from sweet itch do and I'd rather see them happy in their rugs than rubbing themselves raw without it.
 
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we don't get bot flies but what we do get is a plague of crab flies

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Are you in the New Forest by any chance? CraB flies seem to be unique to the New Forest as far as I can tell.

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and Dartmoor
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