Horse rubbing his head

Hidee

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Help wanted! :)
We have a connemara gelding who is 8. He is amazing in every way, but we have one small issue I was wondering if people can help with? He started itching his face and bits of his neck last Autumn just before and also after we bought him. He hadn't done this before. At the vetting the vet suggested it might be sweet itch - he was out 24/7 at the time. We just put sudocrem on the itchy bits and also we washed him with a 'pesk wash' which seemed to alleviate the symptoms for a while. He stopped doing this completely over the winter (out in the day, in at night), but since he went out 24/7 onto summer grass this month he has started again! It only occurs on his face, and he did a little on his neck but now he has a neck cover on (fly rg or no-fill turnout) he doesn't rub his neck anymore. He has rubbed large amounts of the fur off his face (not making them bleed, just makes him looks patchy where htere's just skin) but we don't think it's sweet itch because he has never rubbed anywhere else and leaves his tail and mane well alone. He does have quite sensitive skin which we've noticed in a number of ways - he didn't like being brushed where he was clipped but it fine now his summer coat has grown back. We wondered if it could be dry skin or maybe he's allergic to something in the grass? I also wondered about possibly putting a fly mask on him to prevent too much fur being rubbed off.
Any ideas or experience of this would be great! Thanks :)
 
My connemara rubs his face too, but his is definitely sweet itch because he rubs his mane and tail and kicks at his tummy when the midges are bad, so that doesn't help you much.

I would still suspect sweet itch first, and eliminate that as a cause before you go down the allergy route.

You could try one of the boett face hoods rather than a normal fly net (fly nets don't keep out midges). At least that way you would be able to tell if it is midges biting or not.
 
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