Any thoughts on itchy ears? I have not seen any bugs in or around them but I’m thinking it’s probably some sort of bug. I swapped her fly mask for one with ears. None of my other horses seem to be affected yet. Should I go get everyone new fly masks? We’ve never really had issues with this before, but perhaps the wet weather has hatched something.
She was pretty obvious about it. Came up and wanted her ears scratched. And that was when I noticed the scabs.
Itchy on the inside? Mine get gnat bites on the inside if I don’t have a mask with ears. They get scabby and bleed.
If it’s on the outside…it could be something that got on its ears. Sometimes my horse gets dried slobber on his ears, or bran mash. Rain rot, if it’s been wet. One time my horse had mystery gunk on his ears. I realized one day that the barn staff was turning him out in the indoor and he loved to stick his head in the tractor parked in the corner (!!!) and it was engine grease 
Yes she’s itchy on the inside of her ears.
The animals we love are DINGBATS.
Then probably gnat bites. You could use roller fly repellant on the inside of ears, but I think the masks with ears work better, albeit they are a bit more hot for them to wear.
You can coat the inside of the ears with SWAT. It’s a fly repellent with the consistency of Vaseline, so it may also be a bit soothing. Which dawns on me, you could probably just apply a coating of Vaseline so gnats can’t get to the sensitive skin!
We do the Vaseline inside ears, year around. Just enough to make ear skin smooth inside, not huge gobs. Insects can’t get a grip or bite thru it. In summer it lasts a couple days, then is reapplied. Horses LOVE getting bugs and scabs rubbed away. As OP said, they come right over to get ears rubbed when the bugs are biting.
Very helpful “training” for no-fuss ear handling during bridling, brushing ears out, putting on ear nets during rides or drives. We turnout at night during summer, so no one wears masks with ears.
I found the culprit. Small flies that go in the ear and bite. Yuck! Poor girl.
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