Fly Masks

Because of all the rain we had last winter, the fly problem is pretty bad this summer. The flies get into the horse's eyes and irritate them causing them to swell and get infected. With horses that have runny eyes, we have to keep their fly masks on both day and night when they are in their pens. Usually, however, we take the masks off at night when there aren't any flies about. The problem is that with the long summer days, we can't take the masks off before we leave for the day as the sun is still high in the sky. Fortunately, the horses have figured out a solution on their own.

I left my two horses in the small pasture over the weekend. The small pasture has a lot of flies in it due to the proximity of the manure pile. Thus, I instructed the weekend duty trooper to keep their masks on while they were in the pasture. Of course, the horses like the masks on during the day when the flies are out but don't like them at night. Since there would be no one out there at night to take the masks off, the horses would take them off themselves. Each morning the masks could be found on the ground next to each other. Obviously, the horses would reach a mutual agreement at some point in the evening to remove their masks. Grabbing hold of each other's masks with their teeth, they would pull them off and drop them on the ground. The next morning, the duty trooper would find them and put them back on. The horses wouldn't mess with the masks during the day, only at night. Smart horses.