Sweet itch in the rain!

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PiggyB

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My horse is living out in a private field with no livery services. She is sweet itchy, but this has been controlled fairly well. She is turned out in a hoody and fly mask all the time. The changeable weather is proving a bit of an annoyance since I can't be there to swap rugs for these heavy downpours. I don't want to risk putting her in a turnout rug in the morning when it will probably stop raining and she will get bitten to death during the day.

She has a liner for her hoody, but she still gets completely soaked with the freak showers we've been having.

She doesn't seem to mind getting drenched, grazing happily in the field when it's chucking it down and looking more relaxed than when the sun is out. Should I just leave her in the fly rug? It isn't too cold and it dries out fairly quickly, but it just seems a bit wrong!

Sorry if this is an inane question, I've never had a sweet itcher before this year and usually keep my horses on a yard with services.
 
Hi There

My horse also suffers with sweet itch and she always has her sweet itch hoody on throughout the season. If it is warm but wet, i tend to leave it on as it is and it dries out quickly. If i turns cold with heavy showers that are contstant, she has her no fill rug on over the sweet itch rug. If it turns cold and showers then she has her no fill rug over it as well. There have been a few times when it has chucked it down and she hasn't had a turnout rug on when it has been warm and she has been fine.

they tend to dry out quickly, hope this helps.
 
My new pony has awful sweet itch which is now coming under control I leave his fly rug on no matter what the weather and he seems fine with this
 
Its probably better to harden your heart and leave a SI horse out in the rain (with a rug/hoody on) rather than start rugging up, coz even with a light "mac" on they can still get VERY hot underneath, which will then start up the itching and they'll just get frantic.

After all, in the wild, horses don't have "rain-rugs" on do they???

IF you notice anything like rain-rash beginning tho' you might have to think again - but I think a SI is generally much better left in a situation where they're colder (they can always walk around to keep warm), rather than rugged up and boiling.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Its probably better to harden your heart and leave a SI horse out in the rain (with a rug/hoody on) rather than start rugging up, coz even with a light "mac" on they can still get VERY hot underneath, which will then start up the itching and they'll just get frantic.

After all, in the wild, horses don't have "rain-rugs" on do they???

IF you notice anything like rain-rash beginning tho' you might have to think again - but I think a SI is generally much better left in a situation where they're colder (they can always walk around to keep warm), rather than rugged up and boiling.
Click to expand...

This is what we do with ours.
 
We found the best system with our sweet itchers was to have two hoodies - swopping them over and letting the wet one dry. The minute that we took them off, even for a few hours, and even if we put a regular turnout rug on, was the minute that they started to itch and itch... On really really wet days in autumn when the temp was getting cooler, I sometimes put a no fill turnout on top of the sweet itch hoody. I've never tried a liner.
 
I noticed that after buying the SI hoody, which is shower proof, Chloe was much less scurfier. I therefore invested in an Amigo Lite 1200, with a neck that was two sizes bigger than the norm, meaning it goes right up to her ears. It's been BRILLIANT anf thoroughly tested with our 'summer'.

One thing that has crossed my mind, though, is to put a SI hoody through the wash with rug re-proofer. As the denier is so tight on the SI hoodies, I wonder if the reproofer would give it the extra water repellant properties needed in our Autumn showers. I've bought some and am going to try it in the next wash!!
 
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