Horse Fly Help

I was told this should be a page, so here goes. It's a story about my horse Jet and terrible horseflies. I will also tell you what I did to get rid of them. If making this page helps one horse and owner, then it was worth the time it took to make it.

First a little background to help you all know Jet. I purchased him in August of 2000 as a 4 1/2 year old stallion. He was poorly taken care of and was quite awkward looking to say the least. His head looked too big for him and his belly stuck out way too far. He was untrusting of people, men in particular. I wormed him and began feeding him twice daily, with good grass hay and sweet feed. With Love and patience on my part, a beautiful partnership began to take shape. It took nine months for hoof growth and good body condition.

This is Jet in August 2000

Last year was a great year for both of us. I sent him to a trainer not long after I got him. Then we shared some nice rides together and just plain getting to know one another. We had even learned the one rein stop the day before and later jumped some deer in the tall grass. He never seemed to notice the deer, though I know he saw them. I realized what a special boy he was from our first trail ride and how he responded to me.

I had been using fly spray on a daily basis to try and keep the flies at bay. It was a bit frustrating to the horses and to me since it didn't seem to be helping. I kept at it though, applying that spray daily. It was working for the regular flies but for those nasty horse flies it seemed as though they were laughing at me, taunting me.