So I am glad to know that I am not the only person who thinks it is crazy to leave a horse out in such hot temperatures! I was worried that I might be getting a little warped and a bit…well…unrealistic about horse care. Especially now that I only have my Gennyral. I am also clearly not moving my boy to Canada anytime soon! I cannot imagine snow filled winters AND blistering summers! I will make sure to tell Gennyral he clearly has to look in to Alaska and not Canada for prime real estate 😛
So talking about the heat naturally brought up the topic of bugs so I am going to try something new today. I am going to start a series called “Products I love”. I figure it was time to tell you all what I use and what products I can recommend because I use them myself. I also thought it might be fun if some of my fellow bloggers joined in and talked about what products they use and why. My first product is…fly spray!
The only brand of fly spray I use is Endure. I LOVE IT! It has been the only fly spray in my experience that actually works, and works for several hours. I used to HATE it when I would spray my horse and as I was putting the bottle away flies would already be starting to land on him again. My sensitive Thoroughbred goes NUTS with bugs. He will pitch a fit of enormous proportions if a common house fly lands on him, when the real horse flies come out…forget it! Even just thinking about a “boomer fly” is enough to send Gen running and leaping like a fool. This hate of flies and lack of quality fly spray has led to some interesting stories over the years…many of which involve Gen almost knocking my head off with his hind legs.
When a friend told me about Endure I went ahead and checked it out. The first thing that hit me was the price. It was, by far, the most expensive fly spray I ever bought at $19 for a 32 oz spray bottle. The second was the fact that it was TOXIC. Like really toxic. There are warning all over the bottle about how you should not breath it in, you should not let it come in direct contact with human skin, etc. You would think that would be enough to scare me away, but no. Gen was hurt at the time and I NEEDED him to be bug free, so cancer causing and wallet breaking or not, I bought the spray.
The first time I used it I was already impressed. It worked! Like really worked. I would spray it on and the bugs would fly by, but never land on Gen. After a few days I put it on while Gen was still wet from a bath expecting it to not work as well since my horse clearly tastes as good as a Pina Colada to the flies when he is all water logged. That day not a single bug landed on him, and I was totally hooked!
I have used it for years now and still love it. My horse had cancer and a bum leg before I started using this fly spray so I don’t worry too much about side effects. I buy the gallon and then dilute the pure fly spray with about 40% water stretching my buck and making sure there is still enough fly spray to be effective. I did struggle with whether or not I should use it on Phoenix since he was so young, but because it works so well I couldn’t help myself. Since I only used it for two seasons on him I doubt it caused him any harm and I know he appreciated being bug free.
I have tried over 20 different fly sprays and none of them work as well as Endure does. Would I use it on a pregnant mare or a foal? Probably not. But I do use it on my older gelding because it works! And my horse is much more likely to break down and hurt his leg being an idiot than to have an impact from the chemicals.
So if you are looking for a fly spray that works, try a bottle of endure. Even if you just use it when you ride at least your horse can get some bug free ride time in the summer.
A Horse and a Half 