Do you think wrapping horses up in fly stuff makes them worse with flies?

Vickijay

Vickijay

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Just wondered what everyone here thought.

My mare has recently started wearing all her summer fly stuff- Rambo sweet itch hoodie and full face mask with ears.

The last few days when I have been working her she has been funny about flies round her ears. She's still working nicely but she's flicking her ears.

I think it's because she's too covered up when she's out so is being a drama queen about them touching her when shes working! So now she has a normal fly rug on without a neck and a hat without ears on to see if it improves.

Has anyone found this?

Vicki and Lilly twitchy ears!!!
 
I absolutely agree with this.

The more you guard against flies, the more you need to guard against flies.

Horses have coped without fly rugs and hats for the last however many hundreds of years.

IMO it makes them soft and takes away their ability to think for themselves. Mind go to shade, or stand nose to tail to get rid of the flies.
Pampered horses tend to forget how to do things like this :D
 
I've often wondered about this. I don't use fly sheets etc. but provide barn access. I do wonder if it makes horses hotter and therefore itchier too.
 
I think it def makes them hotter and itchier. They are already wearing a fur coat, and to put more on that on a hot day can't possibly make them MORE comfortable.

That's what I think anyway :D
 
I disagree. I think my horses are more comfortable and cooler in their fly rugs, so long as the rug is a light and reflective colour. My mare hates all other rugs but will virtually try to put her fly rug on herself when I approach her with it.
 
I think if you have good quality fly rugs they don't get hot under them. A few days ago when it was very muggy here Lilly had her sweet itch rug on and was cool under it, my 2 year old (who had nothing fly related on) was sweaty.

I think if you have a dark coloured horse having a white fly rug on can help keep them cool. My spottie horse is always much cooler to touch than the bay girls.

I'm just thinking that having hats on that completely cover the whole face means that when you take it off to ride the flies at more annoying as they are not used to them being on them and that rugs are probably the same...
 
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Mine all have Fly masks on. One suffers from a runny eye in this weather which attracts the flys which then make it run more and infect it. One has pink skin round his eyes and burns and the other suffers terribly with fly bites. He has a full fly rug on too after fetching him in on Wednesday night to find him bleeding under his belly and sheath where he'd been bitten along with hundreds of swollen raised lumps. After that they all have a thick tea tree based cream put on the top of back legs and sheath. Which they all come over to have done willingly. As well as fly spray applied.

I'm normlly the sort to let them get on with it and apart from the masks just leave them be. But after seeing them all so distressed with it the other night I've had to do something for them. It's the first time I've had a fly rug, and I can say that my bay youngster is cooler with it on than without it. I wouldn't bother with them for the grey's unless they reacted as severely as he did to the bites.
 
All mine wear fly masks in the field. The one horse had a nasty eye condition a few years ago and I cant bear all those flies crowding round her eyes, just in case it starts something off again. Inside the ears on the chestnut horse get crusty and scabby from the flies which cant be nice for her so she wears a mask too. I am soft though, so if its particularly bad with flies, then I hack out with the mask still on the horse. LOL
 
Yeah I suppose the quality will play a big part in it. I'm not against them per se, but I don't use them on mine.

I have to use a special nose cover and boots all round on one though for sunburn.
 
never noticed that they are then worse naked tbh, it's my fault that they have to live in a sheltered 3 acre field and can head up the top of hill with some breeze without flies so I will try and make them as comfy as poss. they don't like eachother enough to share tails very often ;) . Also Frank has a tendency to react to bites so I keep him covered. The last couple of summers he has been fully clipped but have been interested to see that even though he has only just got rid of his winter coat and def has a bit of a19 yo welshie not that fine summer coat that he hasn't gotten hot under his fly rug at all the last couple of days. (we have rambo protectors)

He also has a full mask, with ears because that's how they come when you want a nose piece to stop it burning! :D
 
I've just put my horses fly rug and mask on today - simply because his field has limited shelter and hes dark bay so is getting very hot in the sun. The flys are constantly at his eyes too. I'll keep an eye to see if theres much difference.
 
Depends on the horse I'd say. Had a Friesian with bad sweetitch who would gladly crawl into her Boett on her own; whereas ex-racer pulls everything off as he prefers to be naked and then gets very irate when flies are around.
 
I use a mask for my mare with varicose veins under one of her eyes.. If the flies get too bad her eyelids can swell shut on that side.. And I used a rug for Maje when he used to come up in dozens of lumps for bites at a previous yard..
 
I can see light sheets could well keep horses cooler.

Mine are yarded atm and flies aren't such a problem as in the field I have noticed. My tb does wear a face mask if out in the field in the day in summer.

I think night turnout is the way I will go in future for various reasons, flies being one of them.
 
My boy doesn't have a fly rug on. He's white anyway so doesn't need anything to keep him cooler, and the flies don't seem to bother him as much anyway, being the thick-skinned boy he is :p

I do put a full face fly-mask on though, mainly because A) He has problems with one eye. Woman I bought him off said he damaged his eyes before I bought him. He can see out of it and everything, but you can tell it's not completely right because, basically, he has a very lazy eye :rolleyes: So I don't want anything getting in it, especially flies. Prevention is better than cure after all. And also B) because covering his pink nose with the mask is far easier than covering pink nose with sun cream.
 
my mare had a corneal eye ulcer a few years back that re-opens if flies irritate it, for her its crucial to wear a flymask as without one it could be the end of her! The vet bill the first time it happened was £4,500 and it re-opened once since when she got the mask off and cost me £300.
 
My bay mare is quite happy without any fly protection at all (other than fly spray) She's not particularly bothered by flys and refuses point blank to have a fly mask anywhere near her, however my appaloosa mare is stupidly sensitive to flies and also has 2 small sarcoids that are being treated so she's covered completely by a fly rug, plastered in coopers and wears a fly mask a lot of the year as strong, cold winds give her conjunctivitis in winter and flies seem to flock to her face in summer and really irritate her. Also, having being a sensitive appaloosa madam, uveitis is always in the back of my mind giving me even more reason to keep her in a mask. :rolleyes: She must prefer wearing it though as she pretty much puts her own head in, all i have to do is close the velcro, bless her.
 
2 of mine wear nothing but flyspray, 1 wears a flysheet that is white as she gets bitten badly even with spray on, i think it depends on the horse.
I hate seeing horses charging about trying to get away from flies
 
back in the days before fly rugs we used to ride up on the quantocks and end up with a swarm of flies following us, being teens we used to try and outrace them, (doesn't work lol) we were always more bothered by them than the ponies ever seemed to be, in fact i don't remember the ponies ever stressing over the flies or getting reactions to them.
i think all the chemicals and god knows what that goes in the supplements and feeds now is the cause of horses sensitivity to things, flies possibly one of them and the rise of allergies, exactly the same as it is in humans! JMHO of course and some science bod can probably provide countless studies to disprove my theory;)
 
My mare is covered head to toe in field including face to avoid sunburn as she suffers terribly. She doesn't bother about flies when ridden though.
 
amandap said:
I can see light sheets could well keep horses cooler.
Click to expand...
On the off topic subject of heat regulation and over heating causing itchyness etc. I was just out in the heat but there is a good strong breeze here and it made me wonder how much cooling is inhibited by the sheet reducing evaporation from sweating? Even in high temps here over the last three days none of my horses are noticeably sweating just mooching around.
 
I disagree with the sentence. My mare is extremely fine coated and has zero tolerance for flies both physically and mentally. If I left her uncovered she would be be covered in lumps and bumps in no time, Fly spray alone is not enough. I even have to leave a fly rug on her in the stable! She also has to wear a full face mask.

Certain horses, more your native and cross types are more able to cope with the flies as it's in their breed however, If an owner wants to make their horses life more comfortable and fly free by putting a fly rug on, whats the harm in that!
 
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