Weird behaviour - help please!

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Booboos

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Me again, sorry!

I checked on the horses at 3.00, they were fine. About an hour later R is very sweaty from trotting around the field. He was not galloping around in fright or high spirits, he was not messing, bronking, playing, etc. rather he was doing a very steady trot all the way round the field constantly as if he was on an invisible lunge line. No rolling, groaning or other signs of colic and he's never had colic before. Quite a few flies in the field (which seem able to ignore my fly repellent) and at some point we saw a wasp following him. (we are in the south of France, it's quite warm, but the field has water and shade).

The other horses are all calmly standing or grazing, but R kept this up long enough to sweat up quite a lot and be out of breath. He has now stopped and breathing is back to normal.

Any ideas what this is about? He's never done anything like this in 6 years, not have I ever seen another horse do anything like it. Is this something I should call the vet about, or am I being totally silly?
 
Well, it's a possibility, but he was not bolting, bucking or running, he was calmly lunging himself in a large circle, for a very long time - weird! I'm checking him every 15 minutes, will be a busy evening!
 
The wise lot on the French forum have suggested it could have been a bot fly. Apparently they look like large wasps with a curly tail and drive some horses nuts...Will have to look for a better fly repellent!!
 
I'll bet any money it wasn't a wasp but a dirty great bot fly - very irritating to horses and most probably why he's in a sweat. 50p says he'll have lovely little yellow eggs on his legs later - enjoy removing them!!
 
There's one called Bot Free or something (black bottle, think it's from lincoln products from memory) no need to spray all over, just on the front legs and undercarriage. They're horrible things, don't bite, it's just the eggs (which horse then licks off and larvae eventually hatch through the horses back - wormer kills them off though!) I've been chased by one perhaps cos I stink of horses...
 
Bot fly larvae are actually passed through the anus. It's warbles that come out through the back. Not that that is all that relevant to what was setting your horse off? Do you have crab flies in France? Sometimes these will get into a crevice around the sheath, teats or under the tail and upset a horse (badly!!).
 
Yes we have crab flies (mouche plat) here, and from what I heard they can make horses go bonkers. He was pretty settled though and very sensible about it, so in retrospect I think it was a bot fly and he just did not want it to touch him! Silly beastie!
 
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