I’m not totally in love with the spray I am currently using and am interested to hear what other people have found works best for them. Insect load I am dealing with is relatively light, mostly general flies (including bots), not much in the way of ticks I’ve noticed so far, no gnats to speak of. Horse has no chemical sensitivities I’ve discovered so far. Sunscreen would be a plus if it works (for fading, not a lot of white/pink skin).
I like this concentrate from TSC:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr…eous-fly-spray
I mix at 1.5X the strength recommended (=1.5 measures per quart) & use it as a premise spray, directly on horses & in my chicken coop.
If biting flies are especially bad I will also spray my clothes & exposed skin*.
*never on my face!
& yeah, I know - permethrins :eek: - but I am still alive
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I like Equisect. It smells pretty nice (minty), seems to work well, and the horses don’t fuss when I wipe it on their faces.
What works best for us, we are talking, with fly predators, a mere handful of flies, not a barn full of horses stomping, we use a light spraying of Farnam’s Tri-Teck or something like that, in a shiny grey bottle.
Every store here carries that, even Walmart.
Hands down, Whole Horse Equine fly spray!
A friend and her mom developed it because they were tired of commercial fly sprays that didn’t work (and mom is a chemist). It is 100% natural & non-toxic, made with essential oils and other natural ingredients. And it really, truly WORKS. The only thing I’ve found that it isn’t effective against is the huge horse flies in the middle of summer, but nothing works against those suckers. I use it daily on my horses and myself throughout fly season. I’ve also used the fungicide lotion with success on my horses and dog. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is the shampoo, as it just came out this spring, but several friends have given rave reviews. Note - I am not at all affiliated with the company other than as a friend and as a 110% satisfied customer! I honestly wouldn’t recommend the products if I didn’t love them. 
We just started using the fly spray from Equiderma and absolutely love it! It smells great and leaves their coats soft and shiny. I’ve tried many different types and this is by far my favorite!
I’d given up on fly sprays that did not work until I tried Eco-vet. I honestly think it is the best I have tried to date.
People moan because the smell gets to them, but if you make a point of standing upwind of the spray which I
do anyway, it is fine. Look up the website.
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I like Pyrhana for long term (pasture use). I am looking for something a little less chemical-based for every day training horses. I can’t stand the smell of the Eco-vet! It fills the barn aisles and takes forever to air out!
Tritech. Too harsh for my thin skinned (thin haired) appaloosa but effective for other “normal” horses. Pyrannah works too and made them shiny because oil based but pretty heavy chemical so we went back to Tritech
Another Eco-Vet fan. I feel it works better than anything else I have tried. We also do a lot of fly control around our place, including fly predators, fly traps, cleaning up manure, and keeping grass mowed. All helps.
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We had a horse sensitive to the yellow Pyrhana spray, he would act like a mild colic if you used it on him.
After that we didn’t have any of that around, so no one would ever think to use that around him.
He was fine with any other.
@GutsNGlory If Whole Horse came in a concentrate I might be tempted.
But as it is, $25 for a quart vs the $16 I pay for a gallon (when mixed at the recommended ratio) decides what I’ll be using :sadsmile:
Now that you mention it, Bluey, we had a pony colic after switching to parana also. Had to give her Banamine to bring her out of it
It does, but only in 5 gallon quantities right now I think. I’ll put a bug in my friend’s ear about making a smaller quantity concentrate available 
Horse & pony oil based spray and Vapona 1% also oil based. Mix horse & pony and Vapona half of each in spray bottle. Knocks flies dead.
If not oil based wont work here and a waste of money. Have tryed every water based spray on the market, and they do absolutely nothing…flies drink the junk and keep on biting.
Only spray when I ride ,horse’s have a dark shed to go in to escape the flies.
I second the Horse and Pony spray. Really works. Pulls the dirt up out of your horse’s coat too!
What a strange coincidence, maybe some horses are that sensitive to something in it?
The very best fly spray (good for all horses, but wonderful for horses with sweet itch or allergies) is “Goober’s Almost Famous Fly Spray”. [last year it was ‘Goober’s soon to be famous…’ and next year it will be ‘Goober’s famous…’ ]
I am not shipping it yet, but people are now driving for over an hour to get it at my farm and are buying it by the gallon to make sure they never run out.
It is stronger than commercial fly spray + it has a “secret” ingredient that helps with sweet itch and allergies. After 3 years not one horse has had a reaction to it. Truly it is magical.
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I expect the “secret” is disclosed when someone buys it?
The seller has to know what all is in a product.
You really never know who may be sensitive to something, or may show on a test as not permitted.
We learned that the hard way, when one of our former veterinarians compounded a wonderful drug that worked like a charm.
He said all that was in it, as is proper, so we knew what the withholding times were.
One time, commenting about how well it worked, he admitted there was a “secret” ingredient there.
Pressed when he realized that not disclosing all in there was not right, he told us and it was an antibiotic that was not used in food animals but under very strict conditions, because unlike others, it had a long half life, took over 6 months to be completely out of the system and would, when tested, show and shut down a farm and bring down fines and even jail time.
When confronted with that, he said it really was eliminated faster and he never had a positive test for it.
He was putting all of us at risk, himself, the ones using it and the whole industry.
No, a residue would not have hurt anyone, but that one may be there was breaking so many laws about adulterated product, why whould he have disregarded that huge liability?
I would consider having something “secret” in a product sold to the public a big possible liability, on so many fronts, no matter how innocuous it may seem, unless it really is not material, like maybe considering “wishful thinking” it will work as intended as that “secret” ingredient, which definitely would not test in a lab.
Now, when someone talks about a “secret” ingredient in a product, all sort of alarms ring bells for us.
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I’m another eco vet fan. The smell is odd but to me it recalls ivory soap
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