Well… my boy Dalton is not ready for his fly mask, just yet. Sure, he’ll sniff it… but please don’t try to put it on his head.
Today, I didn’t have time to be patient with his flymask training, so I decided to slather on some fly repellent – because he doesn’t have an issue with me rubbing my hands on his face.
Usually, I would use my favorite fly repellent, but today, I only had EquiDerma Zinc Oxide. I figured that if it could be used for sunburns and scratches in horses, it must have some sort of fly repellent?… (I know the Equiderma LOTION and FLY SPRAY both have Neem oil…)
Hmmmmm. It didn’t seem to have any of the normal fly repellent ingredients like neem oil (which Equiderma is known for). But I decided that I had to use what I had, and maybe the lavender oil would help. Here are the ingredients:
Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Cetearyl Alcohol & Ceteareth 20, Zinc Oxide Powder, DI Water, Glycerine, ColaLipid St, Chlorhexidine Gluconate, Lavender Essential Oil, Trichloromethyl
MY AVENGER!
Yes, he looks like an Avenger. But, he is fly free! As I hand walked him today, not one fly lighted on his face – and they were all around.
So, who knows… I’m not advocating it since I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m just saying, if you don’t have a flymask and do have this ointment on hand, it worked for us!
I guess I could have been more artistic with it – but it worked!
Here he is with his Equiderma Zinc Oxide mask… it worked! I love his hair color. I wish mine would do that.
MY FAVORITE FLY MASK – just as a reminder…
This is the best flymask that I’ve tried. (I haven’t tried Shire’s new one this year.) Make sure to get the one with the silver nose piece. The other Opti-Force fly masks without the silver, do not stay on as well. Anyway, this is light, airy mesh that they can see through easily, it had eye darts and it stays on.
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I’m wondering if that zinc oxide wouldn’t make a sticky mess on your horse’s face? My horse has a blaze, which goes down to his mouth and that means a pink muzzle. Due to the high altitude here, there are few flies, so I rarely need to use a fly mask, but the sun is very strong and I need to cover my horse’s pink nose. Sometimes I use sunscreen, but I also use zinc oxide ointment. They both attract dust, although the ointment is the worst. However, because it’s on his nose it usually gets rubbed off while he grazes.
Your Dalton is sure handsome. Gorgeous mane too.
When does he get to mix and mingle with your herd or will that be awhile before introducing him.