Protecting your horse from insects in summer
The season of relaxation and outdoor activities with our equine companions is approaching. Summer is synonymous with riding, galloping along the beach and spending long stretches of time upwind.
Nevertheless, the summer period brings with it a massive presence of biting insects: flies, culicoides and simulis midges, horseflies, spider flies and stomoxys calcitrans.
A host of pests that can sometimes carry serious diseases.
How can I protect my horse from insect bites?
A clean stable and paddock
The hygiene of the environment in which your horse lives is of paramount importance (summer and winter alike).
The aim is to create an inhospitable environment for these undesirables by regularly removing excrement and cleaning feed troughs.
Insects are attracted by smells and decomposing food, so ensuring constant cleanliness is essential to your horse’s well-being.
Use insect repellents adapted to horses
Insect repellents designed specifically for horses are excellent deterrents.
Good to know: you can apply insect repellent to your horse’s body, especially to sensitive areas such as the head, neck and limbs.
Opting for insect protection equipment
In addition to repellents, you can protect your horse from insect bites with special blankets.
Good to know: opt for lightweight, breathable blankets, such as honeycomb shirts, to ensure your horse’s well-being.
When out and about, you can complete your equipment with fly gaiters to prevent your horse from being stung or bitten.
Choose natural solutions to protect your horse from insects
Garlic is a natural remedy for keeping pests away from your equine companion. The garlic clove modifies the horse’s body odor, helping to repel all types of insects.
Good to know: as well as being a natural repellent, garlic is excellent for blood circulation.
You can also turn to essential oils for their proven virtues.
Essential oils of Lavender aspic (Lavandula spica), lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora) and geranium (Pelargonium x asperum cv Egypt) are excellent horse repellents.
Essential oils can be diluted with a vegetable oil such as Neem oil. It prevents the development of external parasites by blocking the metamorphosis of larvae. Very rich in oleic acid, Neem oil is a choice ingredient for external care products for sensitive skin and anti-parasite shampoos.
Summer meadow management
In summer, the heat encourages the massive arrival of insects. In the pasture, your horse can quickly be disturbed by these pests.
To ensure your horse’s well-being and enjoyment of the pasture, be sure to offer him shady spots under trees or a suitable shelter.
Good to know: insects are less active at night. If you can, you can arrange early-morning outings to the meadow.
Give your horse a shower
As well as being a pleasant moment, a shower will remove the sweat that attracts insects after exercise. Ideally, you should wash your horse with an anti-insect shampoo.
Beware of thermal shock in very hot weather: use a wet micro-fiber towel on your horse’s body.
Confidence in your horse
All these solutions simply reinforce your horse’s own defences against insects. In fact, horses have their own effective mechanisms for fighting off flies: sudden movements, galloping off, shivering skin muscles, tail wagging and head-to-tail contact with a conspecific to chase away flies.
What is the peaucier muscle in horses?
The skin muscles lie immediately under the skin, and are responsible for movement. At least one of their ends is attached to the dermis. Others have no skeletal connection at all, and integrate with the hypodermis over their entire surface, forming a veritable fleshy panniculus.
Highly sensitive, they shudder as soon as an insect lands on the horse to chase it away.
Understanding a horse’s muscles is the key to its daily well-being. With this in mind, Julia Prével presents her book “Myologie du cheval, muscle par muscle”, a fun and visual way to discover the detailed anatomy of your horse.