RICOCHET HORSE WIPES

My camera took a header and my photos for today went with it.  Consequently, the page below may look a bit bleak.  Sorry!  (Sneaking off to Ebay to search cheap cameras…)

My huge discovery today is bittersweet:  Equilite Ricochet Horse Wipes.

THE STORY

I started to use garlic powder for the horses (insect repellant) this week which was about a week too late… (it needs to build up before it is effective).

Unfortunately, the flies decided to have their annual ‘coming out’ party today at my place…

It was totally gross.  In two of my pastures, the flies were so thick on the horses’ muzzles that I recoiled in horror when I saw them.  And, like a flymoron, I ran up to the horses and swatted – which made all the flies fly straight towards my gaping mouth. Double Yuk!

I do use Predators but I’ve only received two packets so far and the first one was a bit duddy.  Not too many came out of hibernation.  So, I think I’m behind the fly curve right now.

WHAT TO DO?!

I ran down to the barn (black cloud of flies following me) only to find that I had no fly spray (I use Equi-Spa).  OH NO!!!  I furiously rattled every bottle of fly spray in my cupboard to no avail.  I didn’t even have any Skin So Soft or OFF!  I was naked of fly spray!!

And then I saw it.

As I threw all of the offending empty bottles of spray about the tack room, my eyes came upon a tub of Ricochet Horse Wipes.

OK, well, that thing has probably been in there for a year or more.  I think it was given to me at a Horse Expo, not sure.  Anyway, the tub sat there because I never want to open Wipes (of any kind) because they usually dry up in about a day.

Yay!!   I grabbed the tub and read the instructions.  It didn’t say FLY on it anywhere.  It said that these were to condition a coat..?  Hmmmmm.  My recollection was that they were fly wipes.   I looked a the ingredients and they seemed to be natural fly repellants: sunflower seed oil, citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, neem oil, lemongrass oil, cedarwood, rosemary oil and tea tree oil, alcohol (the stuff that evaporates fast… and witchhazel.

So, I decided to go with that.

I ran up to the paddock with two of the wipes in my dirty hand.

I grabbed Finn’s muzzle and swiped!

In that moment, the muzzlecorp of flies retreated!

Success!

I continued to wipe and wipe – the cloth wasn’t dry yet – so I wiped his entire body down.

The flies were GONE.

Wrigley and BG were watching nearby, enviously.  So, I wiped them with my second cloth.

I immediately grabbed another to work on Bodhi who was suffering an assault in the upper pasture.

Again, one swipe and most of the flies were vaminos!  There were a few stragglers with Bodhi and I don’t know why… probably because he is so sweet.  I wiped him down all over with a new, fresh wipe.

SO EXCITED

I was so excited to have such an easy and direct application – the ‘wipe’ that I had previously poo-poo’d – that I ran inside to find out more about the product!

To explain my disregard of wipes… for me, it never made sense to have a wipe because you could just spray a product on a towel or something and wipe it on – instead of paying the extra money to get the product in ‘wipe’ form.  Except, I NEVER, EVER did that.  I  never, ever sprayed any product on a towel to wipe it on.  I had sprayed product on a brush, but never on a cloth or wiping thing.

And to be honest, these particular moist towlettes were really saturated and they actually applied the fly spray well, instead of absorbing it – like a cloth would.

Hmmmmm.  I was selling myself on the wipe application!  I have always used a spray but this was so easy and I didn’t lose any into the atmosphere.

OK, so I ran back inside to look it up.

DISCONTINUED.

Yup.  I had had it so long, they didn’t even make it anymore.

I looked E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.  And I’m pretty good at finding stuff… I guess any of us that still have this product probably have it like I did – on the back shelf, waiting to be used.  Aaaargh.  Why didn’t I know sooner?

I guess many of us are just like me – not ready to try a new way to apply fly spray.  Or, maybe everyone thought that they could just apply this to a towel and get the same results.  Or,  maybe people think that wipes dry up too fast – like I did/do.  We’ll see with this tub, since it is the last of its kind…

Anyway, I wrote to the company to see if they had any on their back shelf but I suspect they don’t.

I guess I’ll try the bottled spray some day but I really fell in love with the wet wipe of my experience today.

Sigh.

 

CRAPPY FLY MASK

Remember the cheap Defender fly mask I told you about two days ago?  I said it didn’t fit well and I had to cut darts in the ear holes?

Well, today the fabric around the netting has come undone.

This was the photo that was in my camera before it broke.  I had my finger poking through – where it shouldn’t be able to – on this fly mask…

Sometimes a deal just isn’t a deal.  Do not purchase these cheapo fly masks from HORSE.COM.

 

CASHEL HAY HAULER!

I had purposefully not purchased one of these hay (flake) carriers because I thought there was no reason for a flake carrier since I could carry flakes fairly well.

And then I got some really loose grass hay.  Really loose.  I was beginning to leave a grass trail everywhere I went… which is good if I needed to reseed an area or reinforce an embankment… but I needed to do neither.  So, it just looked messy.

A friend suggested I purchase a Cashel Hay Handler.

Hmmmmm.

I buckled an bought one.

 

HERE ‘S THE DEAL…

Here’s the deal.  It does work.  In fact, it works well.  You can load approximately 3 flakes into it and carry them off easily.

But for me, I have to take several more than three flakes as I walk around.  Although this device certainly does keep everything tidy,  I had to make more trips.

And, when you carry it, you carry all the weight on the end of one arm.  However, when you are holding flakes in your arms, you can balance them so they don’t feel heavy.  I found myself uncomfortable while carrying the three flakes in the carrier and leaning to one side or the other as I walked.  But if I carried them in my arms, I was fine.  Messy, but fine.

So, for me, I’d rather carry the flakes in my arms or use a wheelbarrow.

HOWEVER, I do think that if you have fewer horses to feed, the Cashel Hay Hauler is a very good product.  It does keep the hay where you put it and not all over the ground.

 

EQUION

I know I’ve mentioned Equionbefore… But there is nothing better than looking at your  horse in the Summer twilight and noticing their bloom.

Do you know what I mean?

That’s how I felt tonight as I looked at all of my horses while I was putting Norma to bed.  They have that incredibly healthy glow/dappling to their coats (the glow that makes my trainers jealous…) and they look all bloomy.

I reminded myself to come inside and relate this to you guys.

I love Equion as an overall supplement.  It just works.

Here is a link if you want to try it!

 

 HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

 

 

 

 

Copyright

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