Who Was That (Fly) Masked Horse?
Posted by Mikki on Jun 24 2007 at 04:11 pm | Tagged as: The Barn, Horse Health, Pasture, Product Reviews
We are battling the flies again. In some ways, I don’t think they’re as bad as they were last year - probably because of a late frost that killed off a bunch of our normal pests - but the ones that are deviling our horses are really bad. Last year, we had a three-pronged approach to fly control: Equispot on the horses, feed-through fly control in the horses, and fly parasites in the horses’ environment. This year, we just weren’t prepared. Between the weird weather (One day, “It’s spring!” Then, “Wait, it’s winter again.” A week later, “I think it’s summer already!” The next day, “Nope, winter again…”) and our traveling, the flies kind of got the jump on us. Our poor horses are really suffering.
We are in fact using the fly parasites again this year, and I think they work really well. Unfortunately, without investing in a really big supply of them, we can only effectively treat the barn area. So the barn is virtually fly-free, but the pasture, where the horses spend most of their time, is still pretty fly-infested. That’s where the feed-through fly control would work. (Both the fly parasites and the feed-through fly control work by stopping fly larvae where they are laid - in the manure.) We like to get ours from a local feed store because it’s very economical, but haven’t had a chance to get over there (”local” for us means within 75 miles; this place is about 50 miles away). In the meantime, we’ve been using fly spray, which our horses hate and which doesn’t seem to work all that well anyway. We’ve also applied SWAT to their bellies again, which is very nasty and messy but does seem to help.
Since the flies seem to bother their faces the most, we decided we’d give fly masks a try. We got just one yesterday to see if they would even consent to wear it. We bought a SuperMask II without ears. Since my horse is was a fancy show horse and therefore seems to be more open to weird things being done to him, we thought we’d try him first. We put him in the stall, got out the mask and brought it over to show him. He backed away like I was holding a snake! Not a good start. But after letting him sniff it all over and giving him lots of reassurance, he did actually let me put it on with no trouble. He wore it for a couple of hours out in the pasture and didn’t seem to care at all.
One reason we didn’t try the mask last year is that we were concerned that it would affect their vision. All the fly mask companies claim that their masks don’t obstruct vision, but since “keeping an eye on things” is so important to a horse, we didn’t want to impede their sight in any way. So we tested it on the way home to make sure you really can see through - Bill wore it while driving. 
He says he could see just fine. So I don’t think there’s anything to worry about there. Isn’t he a devoted horse owner?
On the down side…it sure looks goofy. On the horse, not Bill. Well, okay, on Bill too. It’s a hard look to pull off.
Let’s see a picture of Bill in a fly mask!
Thanks for the tip on SWAT on the belly. I’ll try that. My fly spray doesn’t work well either. I use Deep Woods OFF for mosquitos (not flies). The barn owner here uses it. Someone else asked their vet who said it was ok.
Hmmm…I’ll have to work on that picture.
So the OFF doesn’t work for flies, just mosquitoes?
I really have to try that “fly predator”. And I think I might combine it with a fly mineral block. We’ve recently had hot humid weather which really brings those pests on.
Bill wore a fly mask while driving home? He is clearly the most dedicated-to-the-job horse owner I’ve ever heard of. We definitely need a picture.
I use a concoction of half Pyrhana and half Skin So Soft. It does pretty well. The problem is that with all the rain, horse sweat and rolling in the mud, it’s impossible to keep any type of spray on the horse.
Do your horses mind the fly spray? Ours HATE having it sprayed on every day - and you’re right, it’s impossible to keep it on, so it has to be re-sprayed every day. We’re using an all-natural spray right now (Gold Nugget GNatural). It smells REALLY good, and we like the idea of it being pesticide free. Does it work, you ask? Well, I think it cuts down on the number of flies landing on them, but it doesn’t eliminate them entirely.
Maybe we’ll give your Pyranha/Skin-So-Soft blend a try.
What brand of feed-through control do you recommend? I am about to implement your three-pronged approach. Also just started using Farnham’s ENDURE Sweat-Resistant Fly Spray. Got great reviews. I’ll let you know if it lives up. Thanks!
David, please do let us know on the ENDURE. We consider it every time we buy new fly spray - this time, the GNatural was on sale.
We use a store blend (at Pennine Farm Supply, if you live near Spring City, Tennessee), but if we couldn’t get that, we’d probably go with Solitude IGR. It gets really good reviews.
Mikki - the fly spray works for a while, so it’s good for pre-riding grooming or pre-nighttime grooming. Starman hates having his legs sprayed, Marker couldn’t care less. I also tried the natural fly spray (we called Starman “Pretty Boy” because he smelled so good!) but it is not as effective as Pyrhana. I decided that killing flies was more important than “natural”. I’ve also tried garlic in the horses’ feed, but it never seemed to have much effect either. Flies are tough!
I’ll also be interested in how ENDURE works.
Just checking in and you cracked me up with the image of Bill wearing a fly mask while driving.
Did you get any ‘looks’?
Hurry up and post a “Bill with FlyMask” photo for all of us devoted fans! hehehe
So, you mentioned using EquiSpot last year and not this year. What made you change? We have a load of ticks up here in Minnesota, so that creates yet another challenge.
Well, Jeannette, it just seemed like it was too much of a pain without much of a return, since it didn’t seem to deter the flies all that much. However, we have noticed a lot of bumps on the horses that are most likely mosquito bites, and are going to get some Equispot today.
I can’t believe your husband put on the fly mask. That must have looked really silly on him, but if the horses saw him wearing it they might want to as well. I can’t you are having off and on weather. Here in Atlanta, also known as Hotlanta, It stays around 100 degrees in the summer and spring. I can’t wait to read your next post.