How Your Horse Protects Itself From Flies
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Bug season around here is slowly tapering off, but until the first hard frost eradicates those pesky pests they will still be around to annoy us all. Late summer and early fall is when the tiny mosquitos that carry the West Nile Virus show up. The Bot fly uses the lazy days of late summer and hot early fall days to lay their eggs on our horse’s hair. And, there’s still lots of heel flies and stable flies to keep your horse stamping and swishing. Fortunately, your horse has a few built in features that it can use to defend itself from flies.
Most obvious of the insect defense mechanisms is your horse’s tail. A horse uses its tail to help it balance, to communicate and when the bugs are bad, to swish away those that land on it. If the flies are not too bad, your horse may swish lazily and rhythmically, almost as a preventative measure, rather than a targeted defense. However, if a particularly bothersome bug is on your horse’s stomach or between its hind legs your horse will lift its tail and swish downwards to curl the tail underneath itself. The muscles that run down your horse’s spine, and along the bones in the tail allow it to move its tail sideways and up and down. If you’ve ever gotten in the way as your horse was trying to swish away a fly, you’ll know that the lashing tail hairs can really sting! Look out if your horse cow kicks at a fly on its belly. If you happen to get in the way, you could be kicked yourself.
Related: 10 Diseases You Can Catch From Your Horse
Related: Fall Equine Virus and Disease Concerns
Related: 2014 EHV-1 Symptoms and Outbreak Locations
Related: Top 10 Insects That Will Bite Your Horse
Another line of defense is of course, the horse’s mane. Some horses have copious manes, others are more sparse. But, most all help the horse scare away flies. This is done by shaking the neck. The mane doesn’t move independently of the body the way the tail does, but shaking the mane and stamping are often used together to get bugs off a horse’s forequarters.
Another curious way horses can rid themselves of flies that land on the body is using the cutaneous muscle, or Panniculus Carnosus. This muscle, which lies just beneath and is attached to the deepest layer of skin on some parts of the body can be moved independently of the other muscles. The cutaneous muscle connects to the skin on the face, neck, shoulders and belly of the horse. So when a biting insect lands on these areas, the horse is able to twitch its skin to dislodge it. If your horse dislikes being groomed you may notice it will twitch its skin in the same way in response to the feeling of a brush.
Horses also resort to using things like fences, tall grass, trees, stall walls and even people to wipe off the flies. Some horses learn to rub along fence rails or walk through stalks of grass to get relief from flies. And they can combine this with walking or trotting in an effort to out run the bugs. This is often the reason horses lose weight during bug season. Pacing, stamping and violent swishing means a horse may not be eating as much as it needs and is constantly on the move, which can lead to weight loss.
You can enhance your horse’s built in bug busting features by using face masks, fly sprays and fly sheets. Keeping your horse in during the buggiest parts of the day can also help. Not only will you be helping with its comfort, but will be protecting it from insect borne diseases such as WNV. |
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