Horse advice needed!

[Leshy]

Hello everyone!
It seems this year is the year of the horse fly.
Its just unprecedented, we always get horse flies but this year is just off the scale!

A friend has a herd of horses that we help with, and enjoy riding, pulling carts etc.
These horses are used mainly for therapy , as the lady that owns them is a horse behaviourist and natural therapist.
Because of the lady's beliefs and ethos, she will not use chemical repellents and that sort of thing, but the horses are really bothered by the swarm.
She is using neem oil and paste and rubbing the horses in it most days, but it doesn't seem to be helping that much ...

So I thought I'd ask the community here if there's any NATURAL concoction or product that can help repel these flies.

It doesn't help the horse field sits in between a canal and a river and surrounded by farmland...
Any advice would be welcome and greatly appreciated .

Thank you in advance for any suggestions


Regards


Leshy

 

[Drain Bamaged]

An old traveller/gypsy trick used to be to stick soft branches/twigs of Elderberry into the various bits of horse furniture....not sure how well it works but I have noticed on more than one occasion that Roe Deer seem to leave the young un's under the said bushes/trees.

D.B.

 

[nitrambur]

red top fly traps, insecticide free, uses a natural protein based bait

 

[Leshy]

Sorry I should have said , they're cobs , and they are just in the field , no stables, no saddles , no furniture...
Just naturally kept , as the 1st nation tribes would keep them.

They do carts sometimes but that stuff is kept in the farm.

Thanks for the advice so far...


We also use this citronella based spray
at the moment

But these flies are just off the scale and the spray is not ideal nor is totally effective...

It's just a bit sad seeing the horses so bothered by them...


Might try and braid and attach the elderberry twigs on the horses Maine and tail...

 

[Drain Bamaged]

How about something simple, four poles and a net (Gazebo/Tarp) sort of thing with various deterrents hung in/on?....shouldn't take them long to realise there are less flies under there (if indeed it works and there are in fact less flies under there) should be cheap and simple enough.

D.B.

 

[Nice65]

Wet winter, wet summer. Perfect for them to breed.

Ive smashed 4 in the house today and yanked another that was burrowing into the fur on my dogs neck earlier. Persistent bugger recovered immediately and went straight at her again.

Working clearing powerlines of overgrowth used to take us into heavily fly populated areas. We used a citronella spray, but it had other stuff like cedar oil and lemon eucalyptus in it. We soaked ourselves in it, definitely made a big difference.

Name escapes me, something Gold. Got from eBay.

 

[Leshy]

Cedar oil and lemon eucalyptus sounds good , I'll investigate that one... Thank you

 

[Arya]

The only thing that is guaranteed to work, is giving the horses the chance to go inside a stable during the hours that the fly is active (normally middle of the day). Other than that you can try tar or sunscreen mixed with tar. The horses will look like ****, and you need to check for allergic reactions in sensitive skin, but tar has been used as a bug repellant since the old days. I hear some use Citronella with good results, but I haven't tried it myself.

 

[Macaroon]

Without you giving them a field shelter to go to, hardly any of the natural remedies will have any real effect on the sort of flies we've got this year. Cedar oil is the best of them but you're not doing the horses any favours using the amounts needed to be any good. And then go and have a look at the price of the stuff!!!

If you're going to leave horses out day and night in a paddock without very big shade trees or a good field shelter they're going to suffer from the flies. You can give them some relief by using the likes of DEET, but if their owner won't go that route and wants to keep them "naturally" she's going to have to come to terms with their discomfort and misery - that's just the way it is.

There's nothing natural about keeping horses out in an open paddock, they need access to good-quality shade and shelter as they'd have if they were free range; in their natural environment they'd roam over vast areas and be quite capable of finding that for themselves. (of course, I don't know the conditions these horses are kept in)

Don't plait or braid anything into manes and tails, these are the horses' first line of defence and need to be left as they were intended to be if they're to function properly.

At the very least this owner should be providing these animals with good fly rugs and masks; not to do so is mistreatment, whichever way you dice it.

 

[Fraxinus]

Without you giving them a field shelter to go to, hardly any of the natural remedies will have any real effect on the sort of flies we've got this year. Cedar oil is the best of them but you're not doing the horses any favours using the amounts needed to be any good. And then go and have a look at the price of the stuff!!!

If you're going to leave horses out day and night in a paddock without very big shade trees or a good field shelter they're going to suffer from the flies. You can give them some relief by using the likes of DEET, but if their owner won't go that route and wants to keep them "naturally" she's going to have to come to terms with their discomfort and misery - that's just the way it is.

There's nothing natural about keeping horses out in an open paddock, they need access to good-quality shade and shelter as they'd have if they were free range; in their natural environment they'd roam over vast areas and be quite capable of finding that for themselves. (of course, I don't know the conditions these horses are kept in)

Don't plait or braid anything into manes and tails, these are the horses' first line of defence and need to be left as they were intended to be if they're to function properly.

At the very least this owner should be providing these animals with good fly rugs and masks; not to do so is mistreatment, whichever way you dice it.

Pretty much what we were thinking of saying, the horses welfare should come above any ideas of holistic, natural remedy or unproven remedy ideology that a human can come up with.

BTW, I got a horse fly bite this last week, just the one, and it swelled up like an egg yolk, irritated day and night for 3 days and is only just now a red ringed scab on my arm, I pity the poor horses.

Rob.

 

[birchwood]

I agree with the other guys , going 'natural' to the detriment of the horses welfare seems daft to me. Do they get wormed with modern wormers?
Ordinary flies are bad enough but horse flies are horrible things. You can get fly repellent collars that are natural ingredients.
Also fly traps to set out in the field.

 

[santaman2000]

The only thing that is guaranteed to work, is giving the horses the chance to go inside a stable during the hours that the fly is active.....

.....If you're going to leave horses out day and night in a paddock without very big shade trees.....

Do y'all mean to say that your horse flies don't bite in stables or shades? Even in the barn here we have to have big fans blowing to keep the flies out (yeah, it's also partly to keep them from overheating too)

 

[Macaroon]

Do y'all mean to say that your horse flies don't bite in stables or shades? Even in the barn here we have to have big fans blowing to keep the flies out (yeah, it's also partly to keep them from overheating too)

Yup, they surely do bite inside and every bit as badly; but nowhere near the numbers will be inside stable/barn/field shelter as out in an open paddock and the horses have at least a chance of not being driven berzerk
by them. I've known horses do themselves, and their companions, serious harm and injury from wild and uncontrollable galloping to get away from flies, at least it won't get to that point when they have good shade/shelter. Large spreading Oaks and old Walnut were always considered the trees best utilised as shade trees for insect protection.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, Fraxinus, what would the horse want? Im pretty sure they would want to be fly free with no fuss over ideology.

Tengu (Who is normaly ignored by insects, but has had some pretty nasty bites over the years that have lasted months.)

 

[Arya]

Do y'all mean to say that your horse flies don't bite in stables or shades? Even in the barn here we have to have big fans blowing to keep the flies out (yeah, it's also partly to keep them from overheating too)

If I keep the stable dark and ideally cool as well, the horse flies turns around at the door here. They are such large insects, and need to keep that large body heated enough, so they stay in the sun. I have one stable with regular boxes for the horses, and one stable where the horses can walk freely in and out. During daytime the horses refuse to go out by free will, and they stay as deep as possible in the shade of the stable. I can literally see the horse flies smell the horses but they turn around when they enter the shade just inside the open door.

As for keeping horses the "natural" way, I agree with the comment Macaroon made. There is nothing natural about keeping horses fenced in and on top of it all deny them shelter. In nature animals that are troubled by insects have various alternatives to reduce the pressure from the flying beasts, like moving to higher and open grounds with more wind, mud baths etc. When we take things like this away, we really should give them another option.

 

[Janne]

Are these flies the ones that lay eggs in the eyes, ears and open wounds of the horses?

Deet?

 

[santaman2000]

Yup, they surely do bite inside and every bit as badly; but nowhere near the numbers will be inside stable/barn/field shelter as out in an open paddock and the horses have at least a chance of not being driven berzerk
by them. I've known horses do themselves, and their companions, serious harm and injury from wild and uncontrollable galloping to get away from flies, at least it won't get to that point when they have good shade/shelter. Large spreading Oaks and old Walnut were always considered the trees best utilised as shade trees for insect protection.

If I keep the stable dark and ideally cool as well, the horse flies turns around at the door here.....

I'm guessing that's the big difference between here and there then; the heat even in the barns. That and maybe I'm lumping ALL big, blood sucking flies into one group: Horse Flies, Deer Flies, Sand Flies, etc. I really can't tell them apart, I just know they're the huge blood suckers that sting like hell when they bite (and it itches for days)

Yeah Arya we also have many barns that are open for the horse to move freely in or out.

 

[santaman2000]

I'm with the others who've said just do what it takes to keep the horses healthy and forget ideology.

 

[GadgetUK437]

If you are gonna refuse effective fly repellent, ie deet, then I second the suggestion for fly rugs and masks. They do look like they are waiting for their mediaeval knight, but they work. Leave the citronella to the anti-vaxxers, horse flies laugh at it.

--
Gadget.

 

[Arya]

Horse flies bites through rugs, unfortunately