Amateur Dressage

hey all,
first, please forgive my lack of spell-check...also sorry, i wasn't quite sure of the most appropriate place for this post, so perhaps here works...
fly season...ugh...there aren't words for the dread...while my vet approves of my fly control program, i'm interested in trying one of the new supplements that use yeast and garlic to repel flies (i'd rather my horses stink than get swarmed) and also prevent larva from development in manuer thereby decreasing the farm's fly population (theoretically). does anyone use or have any experience with such a supplement? any warnings/possible consequnces i should know about? definitly, i'm going to talk to my vet before giving it to my horses, but i wanted to get some good horse owner experience feedback too. thanks everyone!
i guess this can be my contribution: it worries me how the ventral midline area of my horses- that line down their underbelly where it looks like their belly button would be- gets so irritated by flies. it seems to even start getting raw, and i always find a nice plethora making themselves at home down there. it drives me crazy. anyway, i've found that putting a glob of vasoline there every morning completely keeps the flies from bothering it regardless of the weather (vasoline is water proof). i'm excited about that find; hope it helps someone else. thanks everyone!

Hey Mouse42.

I also dread fly season! I don't have any experience with garlic and yeast supplements for fly control. I've seen the ads in catalogs for garlic and been very curious to know if they work. Anecdotally, I eat lots of garlic and mosquitoes never seem to even notice. Maybe the supplements have perfected some combination?

On an earth-friendly note, I did start using a non-chemical fly spray this summer. I'm sort of holding my breath as fly season really gets going to see if it will actually work though.

I've never tried Vaseline for the ventral area you mentioned. My horse also gets pretty raw and itchy there in the summer. Would Vaseline make it hard for that area to "breathe"?

Let us know if you find more info on the effectiveness of garlic/yeast supplements in your research.

[I'll also create a new forum for Horse Care -- the Bulletin Board does need one.]

hm...interesting point about those places being able to breathe...now i have to justify continuing to use the vasoline. i guess the only thing i can say is that within a week of using the vasoline, the raw places on both my horses completely healed. i've continued to use the vasoline almost daily just to protect those spots from flies, and those ventral midline places have stayed non-irritated. but really good point; it's probably best to ask a vet before taking my vasoline advice...is that something i should stop doing?

Well, I'm going to try it for sure. It sounds like it's working great for you, so I personally wouldn't stop using it. Sam gets the same little spots and I just never even considered Vasoline. But now, I will

hm...so i thought i'd just give an update about this whole vasoline thing...several weeks ago, perhaps three, i found it no longer necessary to put vasoline on those places anymore because they were no longer being irritated by flies. neither of my horses have had trouble since with those ventral places nor have the flies seem interested in it at all (wierd). however, although my gelding's belly has healed and regrown hair beautifully, my 32 year old's belly hasn't regrown hair (although the flies aren't bothering those spots) and the places where i was putting vasoline looks a bit scaley. not sure if that's a result of the vasoline or not, so i wanted to just post it, b/c i wouldn't want anyone's horse to have an adverse reaction. vet's coming tuesday, so i'll be able to ask him about the vasoline more then...

Hey mouse42. Thanks for the update and I'm glad everyone is doing well. I had been curious about the vasoline. Recently Sam got a little itty bitty patch of fungus on his neck. I used some of that very smelly M.T.G. and it cleared it right up. What I noticed when I hosed him down after riding was that the area where I applied the M.T.G. seemed to be "waterproofed" a little. The water beaded just a little bit and I wondered if part of the effect of killing the fungus was to smother it. It reminded me of your successful use of Vasoline to protect from flies. Give us an update when you hear from your vet. I'm really curious. When I was growing up it seemed like we used Vasoline to treat a lot of little skin things on our ponies.