Does anyone leave fly masks on overnight?

[Evie91]

My horse hates flys! Currently in during day and out at night. Generally turn out around 7pm, with fly mask and then go up and take it off around half nine. When I bring her in at 7am her face is already covered.
Considering turning out all night in mask - good idea or asking for trouble?!
Opinions please

 

[Nicnac]

Why on earth would it be trouble? Mine are out 24/7 with fly masks.

 

[stencilface]

Yep. I'm too sensible to go up after dusk and before dawn

 

[Evie91]

Incase it makes them blind in the dark!!!

 

[spotty_pony]

My boy has his on 24/7 in the field at the minute - flies are still around even when it's dark!

 

[Nicnac]

Incase it makes them blind in the dark!!!

No - horse will be fine They've got far better night vision than us anyway

 

[Honey08]

Incase it makes them blind in the dark!!!

It is a good point. We turn ours out at 9.30pm when it's nearly dark and if they have fly masks on they do seem to be struggling to see quite as well, a bit like us wearing sun glasses in the dark. Sometimes I put a fly fringe on them instead, but I am having the same issues as you.

 

[Mrs B]

A horse's vision is very good with a fly mask if the weather's fine, dark or not ... but I don't leave mine on if rain's forecast - the mesh fills up with water droplets and obscures their view.

 

[Evie91]

Brilliant. Thank you all for your responses. I'll give it a go

 

[Echo24]

I left it on my youngster but he would always get it off overnight! So he has his on during the day instead!

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Mine has his on 24/7 unless he manages to dump it-fairly regular occurrence.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Incase it makes them blind in the dark!!!

I used to take fly masks off at night, because I thought this too. However, I kept forgetting , and the horses survived without walking into anything, so now they stay on overnight. Agree with Mrs B about taking them off when it's wet, though.

 

[RobinHood]

Unless you want to get up before the sun rises then just leave it on overnight.

Ours wear them 24/7 with no problems.

 

[YasandCrystal]

Mine wear them 24/7 - I especially want them left on in the case of my mare with a pink nose and the fly net shields her nose from the sun.

 

[gembear]

We leave them on over night.

Just on a side note though - walkers often pass by one of the horses fields, and when another lady at the yard was taking the boys out with their fly masks on, she made a point of stomping up to her and stating she thought she was cruel for sticking masks on the horses and making them blind and would report us all to the RSPCA. The woman then stomped off again.

We all had a giggle about that.

 

[NU ABO]

Currently leaving both mine and my mum's horse's mask on overnight because the flies are just horrendous! If they don't seem to bad on a particular day I'll take it off, but if I leave it off and he's got flies over his eyes, they end up streaming, so I'm very careful to keep it on as much as is comfortable for him.

 

[Evie91]

Dread to think what people think of my horse then; fly rug, fly mask, Pastern wraps and cavello boots (transitioning to barefoot) and then a little pony who requires nothing!!
Thanks for suggestions. Happy to report horse was fine this morning!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

CM had to wear her fly mask 24/7 for about 3 weeks, after she had an operation on her face that couldn't be stitched and the mask caused no problems.

 

[Suechoccy]

Yup on 24/7. At moment his flyrug's on 24/7 too as the flies are relentless. if I take it off, he stands and pushes his nose into it asking for me to put it back on again. Spring/autumn he'll not be in a flyrug and they'll be back to fringes rather than masks.

 

[serenityjane]

This made me laugh- When I was mucking out field at 9.00pm, I took off the fly mask (have to because horse has vision problems) and noticed a massive tear in the back of her fly rug- basically would mean that her bottom could come through and result in a big tangly mess round legs- so took fly rug off as well. As I was hot, bothered and the weather was good, but field in shade, I decided to leave rug off overnight and put her other one on in the morning...rode another horse on a hack at 6.30am, got back, untacked and re-rugged the ridden horse, and went into tack room, leaving the door open.....big noise in yard outside.....rugless girl was making her way into the tack room to remind me about her fly rug!!!! She actually stood in the doorway and picked it up!!!!

 

[Dave's Mam]

Mine has his on 24/7 unless he manages to dump it-fairly regular occurrence.

Same.

 

[chestnut cob]

Yep mine has his on 24/7 too unless it is raining. He hates the flies and always gets nasty gunky, swollen eyes if flies get near them, so he has to have a mask on.

 

[Leo Walker]

I've got a snuggy hoods head that has eye holes and tassle kind of things hanging down. I prefer it to any other sort of mask. I know my boy has spooked a few times if I've moved my hand quickly near his face etc, if hes got a mesh type mask on

 

[shadowboy]

I take my horse's mask off at night. I feel it does them good to be 'natural' for part of the day plus I hate seeing fly masks on when it's pouring with rain- the gaps get filled with droplets and the mask sags on their faces- cant be nice- generally it's been raining during the night if at all here so I go up hay at half 9 take mask off and put back on at 9am - I know they are already about by then but I walk dogs first before it is too hot for the malamute so it's generally what time I can get up. Plus I'm sure he'll cope for a couple of hours!

 

[Ibblebibble]

was almost not going to open this thread as I leave masks on overnight and envisaged there would be at least 15 different accounts of horrendous near death experiences to make me feel guilty and doubt myself! glad to see everyone else does it and no near death experiences involved