The apple cider vinegar does seem to be helping with the flies. I’ve had no problem with them eating just a couple of handfuls of grain with 1/4 cup 2x a day. SWAT works fairly well on their noses and doesn’t dilute like regular fly spray. After 2 weeks on the vinegar, I’ll be brave and try turn out without fly spray and see what happens. Murphy’s oil soap, right off the shelf in the house cleaning product aisle works great on tack. Triple Crown Chopped Forage has been very well recieved by the elderly horses in the barn. All the others want it too!
Loves (that work): Schreiner’s Herbal, ShowSheen (for detangling and keeping it that way), GroomaCombs for Thelwellian manes, plastic curries, Leather Therapy, Cowboy Magic green spot remover, QuicSilver shampoo for whitening, NavilamO for navicular relief, WeatherBeeta rain sheets, VetWrap/Co-Flex, Biozide (why is this only available thru vets?), Thrush Buster, Cashel Crusader fly mask, tea tree oil spray, SWAT, Mtn. Horse crocheted gloves.
No, thanks: Micro-Tec, Ariat paddock boots - awesomely comfortable but don’t last - 3 pair is enough already.
So-so: Excalibur worked fine for me, but I no longer use it. I love the ManeMaster, but I think how well you like it depends on your horse’s mane type. I’ve found flysprays that were completely worthless, and one that was very effective and disappeared from the market after one season. It was so effective I worried about toxicity, since a shot in the air dropped flies dead. I now alternate between EquiSect and an herbal, both semi-effective.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Judy A:
Most off you will turn your noses up at this but it works----1 gal of kerosene—add a little water, not much + a dab of breath o’ pine.
Instead of show sheen----Pledge or other furniture spray.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
WHOA!!! KEROSENE AS in the stuff used as a LIGHTER FLUID? And PLEDGE as in the WOOD CLEANER? Never heard of those before, but you sure are brave! 
anna
~Proud Founder of the H/J Paints Clique~
Like:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
Solitude Fly Spray
Internatinal AV 2 Helmet
$40 SLT Show Shirt
$6 Pebble Grip gloves that STOP blistering on your poor fingers
Lexol conditioner and cleaner
My CHEAP Devon-Aire field boots that have lasted me 2 years and are still going strong and looking good
Sheepskin grooming mits for show ring touch-ups (I LOVE these-Gets rid of ALL extra dust/loose hair that wasn’t brushed off)
Scrub 'N Wash Sponges
Quic Color
White vinigar for cleaning white socks, etc.
Mens beard and mustache trimmers for clipping the face, ears, and fetlocks ($12 on sale by ConAir)
Vetrolin liniment
Hooflex liquid and paste
Kopertox for thrush
Rio Vista Mineral Ice for legs
Show Sheen
Nevr-Dull Silver polish
Fungisan for ALL of your fungis problems
Corona ointment
Tuff-Boxes as tack trunks
Weatherbeeta cool coat sheet (for sun, flies, and the night before a show)
HDR Bridle (very nice quality for price)
French link full-cheek bits are GOD!
Devon-Aire Cool Cotton breeches (made of a fabric that literally can not pill)
Dublin overlay girth ($60 if you can find one)
HDR saddles are not THAT bad if you take really good care of them and have a booty thats ONLY worth $800. Foam panels can always be re-flocked. 
Professional’s Choice boots of all kinds
LibertyVille’s jumping boots that have interchangeable liners (fleece and neoprene) but ARE made in an un-desireable country (Read: India) Leather does not smell and fleece lining is nice. 4 straps as opposed to 3.
Shoulders Back training aid
$5 SLT whips (leave me alone!) 
Dominus 2-way flex stirrups
Vetrolin Bath
Absorbine herbal coat conditioner
Pytchley show gloves (extremely slippery at first)
[/list]
Dislikes:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
Baby pads without girth and/or billet straps
Rubber Bits
Vinyl salt block holders
TS’s
SSG Pro Show Glove (wear through very quickly and cause severe blistering of the fingers)
Neatsfoot Compound
Bite Free Fly Spray
Devon-Aire Versailles Breeches (pill very badly)
SLT brand leather
Natural fly sprays
Bungee cross ties/trailer ties
Cheap plastic tack boxes
“Prince of Wales Spur Set” with nylon starps. The spurs start to peel after awhile… 
Flat nylon lead lines
[/list]
~One tequilla, two tequilla, three tequilla, FLOOR!~
~If you can’t Dodge it, Ram it~
~Amanda~
Most off you will turn your noses up at this but it works----1 gal of kerosene—add a little water, not much + a dab of breath o’ pine.
Instead of show sheen----Pledge or other furniture spray.
to toughen feet + also soles especialy for people changing to te barefoot trim----formaldahyde.
white line–a mix of strong iodine + formaldahyde.
for flies—soak a strip of flannel or other absorbant cloth in the above fly mixture + tie in horses tail, or to halter, in mane, etc.
Stuff I hate:
Shoulders back thing…why in the world did I waste $50 on that thing???
Bronco bug spray - It just sucks
Excalibur…more of the green goop ends up on the ground than in the sheath
The made in argentina pessoas…they are sooo heavy, no where near as nice as they were when they were made in England.
I’m sure their is a lot more I hate, but this is all i can think of right now. 
Portia, the Eurogirth can be found at Dressage Extensions. We just got one in at our shop, and needed to find one to see how to price a used one-(ours is a 28 FWIW )
Snapper, that is how I do my horse’s mane too…pull when drugged, mane master to tide us over until the next drugging .
I forgot another love:
Patagonia riding breeches. They quit making them, but promised me that they would be bringing them back. I love them-lightweight fabric, pullons, with “bicycle short” crotch of cushy fleece. They also make a winter weight breech too. I scarfed up all the ones I could find from patagonia’s outlets, but alas, mine are wearing out. Perhaps if enough people called their 800 number, we could get them back in production…
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
find someone who SHOWS dairy cows - they’ll have formaldahyde, or know where to get it - how do you think all those cows get four nice full even quarters
Love:
I recently discovered Cowboy Magic detangler. It’s worked great to take out burrs and tangles.
Don’t waste your money:
Flat hose…A friend had purchased some from a local sale barn and it broke on his first use of it. We assumed that the reason his broke was because you can’t anything from the sale barn. So, we thought we’d get some from Home Depot (I expect Home Depot to carry high quality–after this experience I know longer hold that expectation). The stuff broke the second time I used it (it cost about $20 a section…not exactly cheap)…I also ended up getting soaked in 30 degree weather. Nothing like not being able to feel your fingers and knowing that there are still more barn chores to do before you can leave.
I was so mad that I almost took it back to Home Depot and threw it on their counter with me dripping wet and muddy with gross boots and hay on my polar fleece…however, it was on my fiance’s credit card. We returned it and they gave him his money back…his comment as he handed the garbage bag to the clerk was “This stuff is crap.” That pretty much sums it up.
Now it’s back to the drawing board…our neighbors are allowing us to use their water (we don’t have a well yet) and we were looking for an easy to drain and easy to deal with way to use about 300 feet (I think) of hose. My fiance is a fire fighter, so we may try to use some fire hose.
MKB…
Yay JuniorJumper01!
I’ve been looking for a girth with brown elastic!
Not white, not green but brown! That way you don’t see it so much.
Everyone has given such a wealth of good information.
Thanks!
A lot of mine are ditto-ing what’s already been said, but this is the stuff that I buy again and again and again.
Cornucresine for the feet
Micro-Tek for fungus. I have both the shampoo and the spray. One application of that stuff and bye bye fungus!
Hawthorne’s Sole Packs
Uptite Poultice (none of that other stuff even comes CLOSE)
Cowboy Magic detangler for the tail! It just can’t be beat. Smells nice, too. I also like their “green spot remover” even tho I have a bay, when he gets off the trailer he sometimes has poo/sweat spots on his butt. A little bit of that spray and it just rubs right off.
My favorite product??? DUCT TAPE!
-Amanda
Just keep kicking
On My Good List:
Gum Spirit of Turpentine (not Venice!) for toughening soles.
Buccas blankets.
Hug fly sheets (www.blanketnet.com)
Clicker for training (http://www.on-target-training.com)
Bit-O-Magic (Cheval)
Ariat boots - I’m in the “I like them” camp!
Hooflex
That little plastic triangle-shaped sweat scraper that’s about the size of a greeting card & fits easily in a brush box ($1.89 @ KV Vet supply - www.kvvet.com)
7% Tincture Iodine - around nail holes in hooves before hooflexing
Soft rubber curry for bathing
Sheepskin mitt for applying fly spray to ears/face.
Sprenger jointed stirrups.
Proud Flesh - the best medication I have ever used is called “Biozide gel”. Available only from your vet. Great stuff.
Likes:
*Cowboy Magic ANYTHING…expensive, but it works!
*Riovista Ravishing Red Shampoo
*Biotin Hoof Supplement
*The big glycerin soap bars for cleaning and Lexol’s Restorer and Conditioner for conditioning
*Weatherbeeta Winter Blankets
*Big D Sheets…we had one for five years, unfortunatly, it got left at the tack store and they kind of took it since it had been there to long 
*Pepi Spray ::mmmmmm::
*Repel X…sorry, but it works on Lexi!
*Johnson’s Baby Shampoo for faces
*Baby Powder for socks
Dislikes:
*Nature’s Defense…yeah, defending the flies…
*Ummm…forgot the name, but its the dry-shampoo in the big black bottle…so gross! leaves a filmy, sticky layer all over…::eww::
*Pull-on bellboots-they’ll be the death of us all! Bell boots in general are pretty annoying though, you either have to pull or tape or continue buying every week or so…
Ummm, thats all I can think of right now…
Britt
Anyway, DMK, your post on the first page had something with DMSO/Dex and add to furacin. I’ve used DMSO/Furacin for “stingy” feet at a show with hard ground. How/what does the Dex do to help?
After one month of using sunnies/flax, I’m actually stunned at the results - thanks Fairweather!
I’ve found the GlucoFlex powder from Jeffers to be quite effective with my geriatric ward.
Spot-on fly stuff - I have some strong suspicions about some bad side-effects it could cause.
cheap leather reins that could break at the worst possible moment causing you to fall and break your tailbone.
Back to the Show Sheen statement: The guy who does my stalls is a walking beer brewery (that is just a statement to set up this scenario - I’d love to have someone else, but at the moment, he’s all I have, and despite the fact that he’s pickled, he’s punctual, and reliable to be here - I won’t let him touch the horses). Anyway, one day I walked into the barn, and a client was grooming her horse. I stopped dead in my tracks at a very distinct odor, and asked her if XXX was here (it was too early). She said no, then I asked what she’d just put on her horse - Show Sheen. Middle of the winter, barn doors closed, I’d been on the wagon for about six months - THAT “stuff” SMELLS LIKE GIN!!! 
BREATHE!!! Oxygen is a good thing!
Sunnieflax Clique, PITA Clique (even if no one cares that my butt is broken)
“poster formerly known as Silly Mommy”
MSG - monosodiumglutomate (Accent) DOES work at removing proud flesh. As does brown sugar and iodine mixed as a paste.
Excalibur works on scratches/mud fever.
Bronco fly spray is cheap and as effective as any others I have tried.
Didn’t like the Quikscreen or whatever it’s called as a sunscreen. My black horse ended up being “streaky” for the summer.
Good products-
Eqyss anything, espcially the Avocado mist! It’s kinda expensive though at $17
Weetherbeeta blankets/sheets are great, very good quality.
Riovista color enhancing shampoo works good.
As always, show sheen is my friend!
Fiebing’s Hoof dressing drys quicker than others so it doesn’t come off as bad.
Quick and easy grroming block works on Toppers for his weird skin problems.
Absorbine Supershield green is expensive, but it smells good and works.
Spot On fly treatment worked well for us. I did notice a difference.
Bad things-
I agree, Repel X didn’t do much.
Tough stuff kind of dries out the hoof.
~Lindsay~
A proud co-owner of CorLin PROductions, specializing in dressage, eventing, and hunter/jumper digital photography.
~Co-founder of the COTH Photographer’s clique~
Oh yes, forgot the Crusader Fly Mask! Long, with ears.
What’s a lematte wool pad?
Likes:
Those square cloth things that make your horse COPLETELY shiny (Maple Springs!)
Cavallo Dress Boots
Marigold’s Fly Spray (by Equyss(sp?) (Dog and Pony!)
SMB boots (Maple Springs!)
Eskadron Polos (Maple Springs!)
SSG gloves (any, they’re greaaat!) (practically everywhere)
Vogel’s leather conditioner
Passier Lederbalsam (everywhere)
Stuuben Spurs (they last soooo long!!) (Maple Springs)
Dislike:
Any flyspray that is water soluble and smells bad
Spray-on leather soap
cheap bell boots
home-made polos that are never the right size
Gel pads
Saddle Pads without billet or girth straps
Nylon lead/lunge lines
Elastic side reins
Cheap elastics that break when you need them most
~*Grand Prix schoolmaster = $250,000…
*15 yrs training with the world’s top trainers = $40,000…
*Top hat and tails = $1000…
*The final salute after completing your first Grand Prix test = PRICELESS.~ (copyright me!)
