Fly masks with nose?

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phoebe.and.bonnie

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I bought my mare Bonnie a fly mask with a nose to help protect her very pink nose from the sun... but she seems very unhappy about having something over her nose and spends the whole time the fly mask is on snorting and shaking her head. It's got quite a good clearance over her nose, and she is used to wearing a nosenet which helps with her headshaking when ridden. I've taken to 'folding up' the nose section and just slapping on loads of suncream... but this seems to defeat the object.

Does anyone else have this issue? It's a Shires full face fly mask... perhaps someone can recommend another brand?
 
My boy wears a full face premier equine one, he wears it quite happily. Another horse on our yard sounds similar to yours and is really unhappy about wearing one and will do all he can to get it off, and has become incresingly difficult to even approach if you have it in your hand.

If you think your horse will get used to wearing the mask in time then try putting it on for short periods, reward, remove and slowly increase the wear time.
 
I bought the Cashel one for the boy's pink nose. He's not thrilled at the ears, but is now very accepting and has stopped rubbing it off in the field-yay! I found it quite secure (started with a fieldsafe over the top).


Maybe stay in the field with her to see how she goes-treats etc to distract her if you hand feed her?
 
Hmm, I quite like the look of the Cashel ones so I'll have a look at them :) She's a real sweet little horse who seems to 'put up' with anything so she doesn't try to take the mask off, and still puts her head down to have it put on, she just seems very unhappy about it! I've been putting Sudocrem on the small burnt bit she does have on her lips, seeing as I have a lifetime's supply of it left over from mud fever season...
 
My horse never got used to hers and spent all day blowing her nose and trying to rub the mask off. Try sudocrem as a sun block, the zinc oxide blocks the sun and it is thicker than sun cream, so one application a day is enough and it has worked really well. She is much happier with cream on than the face mask.
 
katherine1975 said:
My horse never got used to hers and spent all day blowing her nose and trying to rub the mask off. Try sudocrem as a sun block, the zinc oxide blocks the sun and it is thicker than sun cream, so one application a day is enough and it has worked really well. She is much happier with cream on than the face mask.
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I'd be wary of using sudocrem as a sun lotion-isn't it oil based and will therefore make burns worse in strong sunlight?
 
Tried using kids factor 50 sun block and horse was still getting burnt and it is expensive (and all the hairs came off her nose!). Have used sudocrem all summer and it's fine, it was in a horse and rider magazine (page 91) that the zinc oxide in sudocrem acts as sun block. Have had no more burns and I have also read about other forum members using it.
 
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