zebra rugs - any experience?

Apparently the stripes confuse the flies so they cant land! I have been looking at these for my very sensitive coloured who gets eaten by the flies but he has big shoulders an I am always worried they wont fit.
 
OK, I admit I've not read all the replies. All I can say is that I have one, and it does seem to keep more flies away than the other 'non-zebra' flysheets that I use when it's in the wash!

I did think they were a bit gimmicky to begin with but having read somewhere about a university study that proved they keep flies away I thought I'd give it a go! It does even seem to help a bit with the dreaded midges as well.
 
Does anyone have any experience with using the fly zebra rugs? http://www.bucas.com/products/buzz-off-zebra/

Need to buy a new fly rug for my TB
I have one for my pony and HATE IT it is rubbish and too fiddly , thinking of selling it to buy another one which I had before, which is a much nicer rug and that is the Maxima much better rug at less than half the cost. Total waste of money the buccus
 
I have one for my pony and HATE IT it is rubbish and too fiddly , thinking of selling it to buy another one which I had before, which is a much nicer rug and that is the Maxima much better rug at less than half the cost. Total waste of money the buccus

how do the maxima ones fit? :)
 
I've not used that one but have a Maxima zebra rug which has proved very good for my itchy one and quite a bit cheaper. The stripes do seem to keep the flies away.

Me too Maxima much better rug brilliant, my boy killed his last year but would rather buy and replace his than buy 1 Buccus where the stripes are too wide and more like a cow than a zebra lol
 
For those who bought an ebay cheap one, does it seem ok and is it lightweight enough to use in hot weather do you think? I kind of want to get my boy one due to the weird bite marks he got on his belly that resulted in an infection (we still dont know if it was due to some random flies or if he laid down on some spiky plants), but either way he was pretty plagued by flies last year although the bites never got infected.

I was also tempted by the 2-in-1 fly rugs on ebay that have a waterproof bit along the back, Equidor have some in a couple of different colours, but had seen people say those ones make the horse hot. Is that right? I dont want him getting too hot, but dont want him getting bitten a lot either and him needing antibiotics again. Getting worried he is gonna develop an immunity to them if he keeps going on at this rate of taking them!
 
We have a ride de on one for our black cob. He is plagued by flies and it was impossible to even hack him despite using various sprays. It worked really well, to the extent that I don't need to spray him at all when he's wearing it. I'd definitely recommend them.
 
I bought one(whilst looking suitably embarrassed) because my black horse seems to be the number one target for horse flies and I was told that horse flies are sight oriented, they go for large warm dark masses. The stripes break up the outline visually and reflect heat differently to confuse how a horse fly 'sees' the horse. Last year, although we were lucky and didn't have masses of horse flies, he was hardly bothered by them at all (he got a bite up near his head I think where the rug didn't cover) so I was happy. I did go for a cheap version though, can't remember the brand but it was about £20-30 if i remember rightly.
 
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