Horse Fly Help

One evening when I went out to feed, I noticed Jet laying on the ground. I assumed he was just napping and thought nothing of it. As I got closer he got up. OK, all was normal, so I thought. He began doing this odd circle with what looked to be a limp. Then down he went with a thud. Imagine the feeling I had at that moment, my heart leapt into my throat. I rushed to him to see what the problem was. I was shocked, to say the least, at what I saw.

This is Jet with my son in August 2001, After the flies.

As you can see in the images, he's a red roan overo, but that day he was also black. I would say he had, at the minimum, fifty horse flies all over his side, neck, and wherever they could land. From the looks of the grass, he had been down at lease most of the day, because it was dead beneath him. He had ran from them, rolled in the creek and now he was rolling trying to rid himself of them. He had tried all he knew and now was giving up. He was muddy, sweaty, and covered with welt marks. I was in tears at this site and angry at the same time.

I entered through the gate and got between his legs as he lay there. This in itself was a huge step in his trust for me and I knew it. The most important thing was to rid him of the flies. I sent my daughter after the fly spray while I shooed them away from him. The very instant she touched the gate he was up off the ground. This was a sure sign of who he trusted and who he didn't trust. What a great moment in the midst of all of his misery.

I sprayed him with all the spray that was left in the bottle. It didn't seem to matter if I even used a gallon, because it wasn't working. After spraying him we went to our local tack shop for a fly sheet. While there the owner recomended a new spray to use. At this point I was willing to try anything. Not long there we were on our way back with a fly sheet and this new fly spray.