Fly rugs, fashion or necessity?

I think some of it is definitely for fashion! I was looking for a fly rug recently and its confusing how much protection some of them offer-mine has mild sweet itch and I wasn't sure if I needed a bog standard fly rug or a proper specialist sweet itch one. It makes you think that every horse needs a fly rug, browsing through the catalogues. This is my first summer with her and I'm not sure how badly she's going to suffer, it might not flare up much at all so didn't want to spend a fortune on a rug. I would prefer her to go rugless, it seems a shame that there will only be a short period of time where she can go totally naked, before it gets cold again!

My other horse will just be wearing her fly mask, she's never been too bothered by flies so it would be a waste of money.
 
Well, my pony can do well enough without one, flies just don't seem to enjoy biting him so much. I do feed him garlic, I don't know if that has anything to do with it. That said, he does need a mask very much because he is prone to eye infections. So he has a mask and does ok without the fly rug.

The TB is a drama queen and is very bothered and agitated by flies and also can sometimes end up with hives from fly bites so she has one, and a mask too. She seems a lot happier with it on than without it.

So, I would say in some cases it is a necessity
 
My 'herd' wear fly rugs/masks. They are not on all the time (none of them are wearing them now) but our field is a meadow next to a river, which almost dries up and becomes very slow-flowing in the summer, so it's a breeding ground for flies and midges.

If I leave them unmasked they get weepy eyes and blood in their ears from all the bites, and 3 of them come up in lumps if they are bitten-although it's not sweet itch. Those 3 have 'sweet itch' style rugs as the mesh fly rugs don't stop the midges. The only one that has an ordinary fly rug is the forester and he will only have it on if he gets bothered by the flies.

In the past when we had them at different places with a nice breeze and not near a water course there was no need for the rugs, so they didn't have them, but unfortunately now I would say they need them in order to stay comfortable.
 
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