My new horse is scared of fly spray. He moves away and looks upset any time I spray him.
tips for getting him better with it?
following this…mine is the same.
PUT water in a bottle.(cheaper than wasting spray. If possible, wet horse with hose. They dont feel the spray from bottle if wet. With horse on lead rope, spray hand and give treat. Repeat until he is ok with noise from spray bottle. Then spray horse’s lower legs, underside, then shoulder, back, butt, and neck last. legs. If he walks around you, keep spraying until he stops, and give treat. Stop spraying when he stops. When he walks, (keep in tight circle but keep spraying.
Then use fly spray to do it.
Some horses object to noise. Some to feel of spray. Using water first allows them to get used to noise without having it cost you a bunch.
Never had this fail to work.
2 Likes
Let them smell the bottle. Make it a huge deal when they let you do it. I always train my horses with a cue to let them know something is about to happen as well. I always ask them “Are you ready?”. I’ll squeeze the trigger once or twice and then praise them big time. The first time I tried teaching an OTTB I did it in the stall. I figured that’s where they do everything on the track. Bad idea! Cross ties aren’t any better. I do it with them on a lead rope so they can move. Spray them once or twice, starting with the feet/lower legs and make a big deal with lots of praise, possibly a treat. Just go very slow and be very patient. As they get better with it and I move to the body I will touch them on the body near where I’m going to spray. They feel my hand first and don’t flinch as much. I’m guessing they figure if I don’t pull away it won’t hurt them shrugs It takes some horses many months. The mare I have now was horrible with it. It’s been 5 months now and she still doesn’t like it. But at least I can fly spray her out in the field with just my hand on her. I still let her smell the bottle and ask her “Are you ready?” And I still praise her big time. Watch their body language and give right before they step. You’ll see them tense before they move. If you can stop there it’ll be best. Give them a minute to settle down and then do a little more. The mare I have now would hide behind me and put her head on my shoulder when she had enough. So I let that be her safe place. She still runs behind me and does that when something spooks her LOL
If you have an empty spray bottle fill it with water and just spray it around them to get them used to the noise. You can also practice with that. But don’t overdo it. You don’t want it to be a traumatic experience. Some I could get them completely sprayed down. Some I could only partially get done before I had to stop.
I do spray their faces. But I built the bond of trust with them. I also make sure I wait until they’re ready. I’ll show them the bottle and ask them “Are you ready”. Usually, when they’re ready, they’ll hold their head still while I cover their one eye with my hand and spray. Then I rub it around acting like they’re such a good horse petting and praising them a lot. Then I’ll do the same thing with the other side. This takes a bit of time. My gelding is totally blasé (sp) about it. My mare only lets me do it half the time.
1 Like
I do it in the stall with a spray bottle with water at first. I put some yummy hay in front of them and spray everywhere in the stall until they are ok with the noise and the water spray all around them. Then I spray a leg, praise, treat, rinse repeat all over the body. I always warn where I’m spraying and develop a routine on where I spray. I always start with the right front leg. I don’t ever spray the face but use a mitt or my hand. I also teach them to touch the bottle with their nose before I spray.
Use a mitt instead. You won’t terrorize your horse and you end up using far less spray.
My girl didnt like the sound, so I would give her a treat every time I sprayed (not directed at her, I used an old bottle filled with water just to get the sound). She was fine after a few days of that. But I still start at her feet to be polite.
My husband is an engineer that designs spray bottle nozzles. I told him he needs to design a continuous spray fly spray bottle. My hand hurts spraying my tiny little girl, I can’t imagine those of you with 17hh big guys!
Same here. My youngest is still really not a fan of fly spray for some reason, though has grown to accept it on his body. But his head? And yes, it DOES need to deal with it - I don’t want any horse not being ok with normal, every day things around their head, that’s just asking for trouble at some point. He will run you down for treats, so I used those to teach him not only to not fling his head up (because, well, treats are down!) but to associated the spray with good things. And ALL I really do is spray the top forelock/poll area to include ears, and I do it close, so nothing is spraying in eyes. Could I use a mitt? Of course. I DO use a face brush if I feel I need to get stuff on the bridge of the nose or below the yes. But on top of the head? Yes, they need to accept that.
My husband is an engineer that designs spray bottle nozzles. I told him he needs to design a continuous spray fly spray bottle. My hand hurts spraying my tiny little girl, I can’t imagine those of you with 17hh big guys!
YES!! And I have one of those 17h-ers who also wears a 60" girth!
They already have them at garden supply stores - in gallon-sized for sure, but I believe I’ve seen smaller.
Just pump up & then trigger for continuous spray.
I had a gallon-sized I used when I had 3 horses to spray before turning them out.
IIRC, the nozzle gooped-up after a couple years’ use, but cheap enough to replace.
As for getting one used to being sprayed: I approach it like anything else.
No trepidation & starting with lower front legs so they can see what’s happening/making the scary noise.
I’ve done this intro in a stall, on crossties & holding on a lead rope.
IMO, if you don’t telegraph “Danger! New Thing Happening!” horse may be wary at first, but will take a cue from you & deal.
Found this out when I rode a borrowed 3yo WB on a warm Summer day, then put him in the washrack to hose him down.
'Horrified Trainer ran over to tell me “He doesn’t crosstie!”.
As horse was standing perfectly still, enjoying his shower, that didn’t seem to matter.
3 Likes
For continuous spray, try using a small, air pressurized garden sprayer. You unlock the plunger, pump up the air pressure, lock the plunger back down and are ready for use. Handle is a wand on a short hose/tube. Press the lever on wand to get spray. I got this tip right here on COTH a few years back. I think my sprayer holds a gallon , but I mixed fly spray in lesser quantity so tank is not heavy to carry with me. It really wasn’t very awkward to use or carry to the horse in crossties. Fine dispersal of the spray onto horses.
It actually worked quite well, but being silent it seemed to surprise my horses as the spray landed on them. They THEN would jump every time on the first touch, then settle to be finished.! I also start with legs as the warning, but not having the noisy squeeze handle, they just did not get ready for spray. Husband said spray was cold, anyone would jump with cold spray surprising them!
1 Like
Our horses get sprayed when we feed, as they are too busy then eating to care.
Even those that we were told are scared of spray never looked up.
We don’t “attack” a horse with spray, we go very easy and light at first.
After a few days of a light spray here and there, then the horses, now aware, don’t care.
When first starting to spray a horse that is not quite sure, we don’t try to get the horse sprayed well, but only do as much as the horse is at that time comfortable accepting, do more next time.
Yep! Many years ago I knew a mare who “didn’t like having her back legs touched”. She’s pin ears and kick. One day, a student went into her stall to groom her for a lesson, and was busy brushing those hind legs. Someone else saw, ran over there and said “don’t! she doesn’t like that” and the mare was happy as a clam
1 Like
Yep this is what i do to get horses used to being sprayed. Maybe doing this 2 times and there over the running around being scared of the noise and sprayer. For doing face and ears i just spray them. One horse hates it and flings his head around at first. But once he realizes i’m not going to stop spraying he stops flinging head around.
trying to rub down ears with mitt or rag just doesn’t work,he hates having ears handled. Have to unbuckle bridle so crown doesn’t go over ears…otherwise you risk getting knocked out by a flinging head.
I taught all of my personal horses to stand still for fly spray while loose in the pasture, even the younger scaredicat ones. I spray their entire bodies. They also lower their heads for me to apply fly spray on a cloth to ears and around their face. All this with no halter. FOOD, yummy food is the magic trick, plus the ability for them to move away from you freely. You also need to know when to take the pressure off before they get too worried because then they come back to you once pressure is off (hint: because you have The Food). This is easiest taught when they are hungry and you have really delicious hay or grain in your hay cart or bucket. Even the most worried one that wouldn’t let me near him with a bottle and would run off learned to stand completely still for spraying in just a few days.
It almost seems like they now make the connection between me spraying them and the relief from biting bugs. They practically ask to be sprayed even if I don’t have food.
1 Like
I hold the bottle and scratch/scrub their body with it while I gently pull on the trigger. They think they’re just getting scratched, they don’t hear the sound and get used to it. I watched as a trim client chase her mare around and around in a circle trying to spray her. Just two sessions with the scratch-n-spray and she was fine.
1 Like
I recently got a horse (March) who I was very concerned that he would either go through the cross ties or kick me. He kicked out a couple of times when being fly sprayed. Now, he is fine with it to the point that I can safely fly spray him loose in his stall. The only thing he does is occasionally move away from the fly spray.
To get him to this point, I used treats. The treats I used were the Sticky Bum treats with the wrapper. He now associates the sound of the wrapper with a treat and tends to focus on getting the treat versus whatever else is going on. Luckily he is very food motivated.
What I did was break the treat into smaller pieces and fed it to him continuously as I was spraying so that he associated the fly spray positively. It took time for him to realize that the fly spray was not hurting him, but over a few weeks/months he improved and now stand quietly in the cross ties. Now I don’t have to use treats and only feed him one once I am done with the fly spray.
Initially there was a learning curve on being able to feed the treat pieces. I had to figure out how to avoid him as he tends to swing his head around and also how to feed the treats without him accidentally getting a finger.
1 Like
My mare used to try and bite me and would actually strike at me when I used a spray bottle. I have no idea why as I have owned her since she was a weanling. She just seemed to feel threatened for some reason by it. The behavior is totally unlike her .
I did the wipe method for years, but then this summer ( 10 yrs later) thought how crazy it was that I couldn’t spray my horse and got to work.
I got a good spray bottle ( with water) and loaded my fanny pack with grain. Taking care to hold her firmly and stand to the side, I just started spraying her and moving with her. When she stopped moving I stopped spraying and rewarded her with petting and grain.
Then I did it all over again and again . It took about 5 minutes and she was standing calmly to be sprayed. We have a mini lesson every time I need to spray her and she has stopped biting and striking.
1 Like
Thanks for the ideas. From reading the responses there are those that say keep spraying until they stop moving and those that say stop spraying before horse gets upset. So maybe I’ll try both and see what works and will use lots of treats.
I guess just using a mitt would work too but I really want him to be ok and desensitized to as much as possible.
I tried doing it while he was eating grass and he was fine until we got further back. Also he doesn’t mind his tail and mane being sprayed if the sprayer is quiet. Im assuming because he can’t feel it on the mane
It sort of depends on where things start to get to him. If it’s Spray 1 that gets him upset, obviously there’s no room to back up from that.
But if it’s the presence of the spray bottle, then you have room to work, by placing it far enough away he doesn’t care, and moving it closer over time to where his anxiety level goes up a little but doesn’t escalate, and when he sees nothing changes, he quiets down. If he tends to escalate instead, then you move the bottle before he gets to that point. This goes for any object he’s afraid of.
This is a valuable part of training, and everyone should actively work to find those triggers for their horse. Learning that some anxiety is ok, they still live to tell the story, is an invaluable lesson for horses. It allows us to teach them a more appropriate behavior , and instills self-confidence.
I guess just using a mitt would work too but I really want him to be ok and desensitized to as much as possible.
Exactly. Not only is it a pita to have to mitt a whole body every day, if you were to sell him and the new owners were not so forgiving, things could get ugly. It’s just such a basic requirement.
My guess is he’s got your number a bit more than you realize 
Give him 1 quick spray and walk away before he really latches on to what’s happening. Praise him for not moving (assuming he didn’t). Repeat. At some point, 2 quick sprays and just quietly walk away.
You can also do this as part of grooming. Without breaking your curry or brushing stride,1 quick spray, and so on.
