Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Cali and the carrots and the great fly spray adventure
















Cali has always been a little "nippy" so we don't hand feed her. Gigondas has the most gentle lips and has NEVER mistaken my fingers for a carrot. We have fed apples and carrots to all of our horses, especially Beauty and Gigondas, since they LOVE apples! And, in the heat we've had lately, it is a good way to get exra moisture into them. So, yesterday morning, when we arrived early at the ranch, the horses were still eating their breakfast. I gave Beauty and Sunni some carrots in the hope that I could get some fly repellant on them, since it is "fly season". NOPE! Beauty ran away from me (she's NEVER done that!) and Sunni eyed me with skepticism. I wasn't ever able to get any on Beauty. I was able to get some on Sunni (the roll on kind) after he decided I wasn't going to eat him (good boy!) Any ideas/suggestions on getting them to stand for fly spray?
The mustangs were busy eating, but stopped to look up when hubby showed up with a red bucket full of carrots. Cali was the most inquisitive.

4 comments:

Dusty Devoe said...

I didn't now they made a roll on fly spray. My Copperpony is a BIG stinker when it comes to fly spray, worming and bathes. We have worked and worked with the spray and he still has a problem with it. We think it is the noise. He will be just a little okay sometimes, then awful the next. I have now gone to the equi-spot. It is about $15 for three applications.We have only done it once. They suggest to reapply every two to three weeks. It is working really good on him. It's been a good three weeks. But we did have a few issues with this too. Not as bad. Dusty also wears a fly mask and fly sheet and I used skin-so-soft on it from avon for the first time the other day. Has good reviews. good luck!

Anonymous said...

Try approach and release. Have the horse on a lead, but hold the horse loosely - the horse should be able to move around if it wants to. Hold the spray bottle up to the horse, say at the neck, and calmly move with the horse and hold it there as the horse moves around until the horse stops moving - this may take a while at first - the important thing is for the horse to be free to move its feet and to decide itself to stop moving, not as a result of you making the horse stand still. The instant the horse stops moving, remove the bottle. If you can't touch the horse with the spray bottle at first, get as close as you can but use the same procedure. Repeat as many times as necessary, holding the bottle to as many parts of the horse's body as you can, again giving an immediate release by removing the bottle as soon as the horse stops moving. You may have to do this in multiple sessions. Most horses get the idea pretty quickly - the bottle goes away faster if they choose to stand still and put up with it. Adding spraying usually isn't a problem after that - if it is, use the same exercise. This approach/release procedure works for other things as well, such as bridling, worming or using eye medication. Hope this helps, and good luck - I love your pictures and hearing about your horses!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

They all look so beautiful! No advice on the fly spray. We are pretty lucky around here and don't have a huge fly problem. We maybe get them 2 weeks out of the year.
During that time we just use fly masks.

Good luck!
~Lisa

Linda said...

I do what Kate does...basically spray while they're on a halter and lead--let them move their feet. I don't like for them to back up, so I tend to start at a behind center point and, if they're going to move forward, I just spray away until they stop. Then I release the pressure--same as lunging. Beautiful, my Mustang, is the best for fly spray, believe it or not. She'll now stand in her stall and let me do it through the bars! They soon find out it is no big deal--and if anything is a help! I do the same procedure for spraying them during the baths. They learn to stand still pretty quick if they don't feel penned in.