Why does a nose net require a vet letter?

[CanteringCarrot]

Warning: thread hijack

Ah Fjords. I quite like them. Friend was about to purchase one from a therapy riding program that downsized, for a good price, but the PPE did not go well and horse also has Navicular issues. I don’t know if this is a common/known issue in Fjords or in some Fjord lines, or if this one is more of a “one off” sort. The horse a darling though.

There are crosses around here (in Germany). There’s a Fjord x QH for sale that isn’t anything to write home about but seems like a decent leisure time horse for trails, light flat work, maybe pop a small X. I did see a Fjord x Friesian and it was actually…decent. Had Fjord coloring for the most part but looked sort of Baroque, but not too thick, a bit more sporty and uphill. Horse was proportionate and well mannered. Idk what inspired that cross, but in that one instance, it worked out alright.

Edit: just browsed some classifieds and found another Fjord Friesian (not too bad), a Fjord Dartmoor (cute and small), and a Fjord Icelandic (omg there is more hair than horse). So quite a bit of crosses around here. Mostly for the leisure time/casual rider market.

[J-Lu]

@luckycricket123

I have a horse that requires a nose net in the spring and summer for photic headshaking. He has a letter from the vet for competition, but I can’t imagine there’s a competitive advantage to using one when it’s not required.

I’ve ridden other horses in my headshakers bridle with the nose net still on and I never felt like it offered any amount of performance improvement.

So I’m just curious why is there an extra restriction?

I don’t know and this is a good question. Maybe they think the horses don’t have flies on their noses?

My horse has developed into a grass pollen headshaker. I pretty much just leave the nose net on all the time. I’ve tried to take it off a couple of off-season times but he reverts to head shaking. His head shaking is well controlled with the nose net and in grass pollen season, I do a month of cyproheptadine that controls it in pollen season.

Yea, I also wonder why they consider a nose net an advantage except for flies.