Fly Rugs - Take 2

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
:D deleted the other thread as people seemed to want to give me advise on what I should be doing to treat Jess, but my actual question was what is your criteria for putting a fly rug on a horse?
eg. Do you do it just because it's the done thing? when you see the horse bitten? When the horse is stomping, swishing or galloping about to escape the flies? never, they're horses...
 
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Buddy gets bitten and quite agitated, he also has a pollen allergy. Aimee donkey has bad sweet itch, if you don't rug her she is raw. Krug donkey tends to rub himself raw as well. but we are in midgy scotland
 
This will be long winded.........................
When we first got J and S and were on a yard, we were told in no uncertain terms we MUST buy two fly rugs. I complied (because I always do as I am told :p ) and on they went for the most of the summer. When we were on that yard, they were out during the hottest part of the day so in a way probably as well they did have rugs. Though in the morning I did find it a faff having to put them on as I was always rushing to get to my job!
When we left there, I kept the rugs but didn't bother rugging them on the next yard, there didn't seem to be as many flies. Mistake! They came back out again but not for as long - plus they were in a paddock where the yard staff could see them and they were great and brought them in if I asked (I used to ring and see how they were getting on).
When we moved them home - I didn't bother at all because it was so windy. But, later on that first summer I regretted it as J got really upset and covered in the horse flies and I ended up having to buy him a new one (had binned the originals).
I think it depends entirely on your weather and breeze / wind and shelter set up. When the girls could come and go as they pleased and escape into their stables - I didn't use the fly rugs, because more often than not they had taken themselves back in and were quite content to hide from the flies.
With my slightly weird set up here - Zi will definitely wear his fly rug and so will Chloe - as they are paddocked and Zi can't escape unless the gate is open. If he is free ranging - then no he won't wear his fly rug.
Storm might wear hers - but being as atm I take her for a walk and in hand grazing for three hours a day and am a human fly swisher - probably not - though when she does go into her smaller paddocks unattended yes, if they are bad.
 
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Hmmm, well I hadn't put a fly rug on Belle at all until last year, she got so stressed by them and they were bad, that she had her fly rugs on all summer, this year so far she's been fine, not sure why they were so bad last year but I even had to get a ride on one too otherwise our hacks were horrible.
So, I'd say put one on if you need to its that simple in my mind.
 
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I put one on Harvey when he starts swishing alot. If I don't he gets bitten and comes out in huge lumps which is not very nice for him and in the past has stopped me riding him because they were in the saddle or girth area.
 
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I've never used them as neither of ours tend to get bitten enough to warrant it. Jack gets mardy with flies when he's ridden but he rarely reacts to bites and neither does Raf, despite having ridiculously sensitive skin normally. Horseflies draw blood on Raf easily, but (touch wood) they don't seem to be a huge problem in the paddocks, it's when we ride out into other, more watery, areas that they become a nuisance. I'm happy that I don't have to rug because I like my horses to be able to mutually groom (without ripping holes in the rugs) and have a good naked roll and scratch, however if either horse does start to suffer with fly bites or appear miserably mithered with them I'd soon put a rug on.
 
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I put one on if the horse is being bothered or is having a reaction to fly bites. If it's just a few hours a day I'd try a good fly spray first, but sometimes that isn't enough.
 
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