The Summer My Gelding Quit Fighting the Flies

The first week of May I stood at the pasture gate at six in the morning and watched Ranger shake his head four times in a row, stomp once, drop his nose to the grass, and come right back up. Same thing every spring. The gnats find his ears and there is nothing a horse can do about it that does not involve losing hide. He is fourteen, a sorrel gelding I bought from a neighbor when he was eight, and he is not dramatic about much. He is dramatic about his ears.

Late April of this year I sat down at the kitchen table and ordered the Harrison Howard CareMaster Pro fly mask with ears. I measured Ranger's head with the cloth tape out of my sewing box, followed the size chart, and it put him in a Large (Horse). Two days later I had it out of the bag in the barn aisle, still folded in the wrapper, checking the fleece along the brow.

Last summer I went the feed store route. A plain mask, no ears, and it made it about six weeks before the touch closure quit holding and the thing started sliding down over one eye. Flies got at his ears anyway, which was the part I cared about. I put it in the tack room and told myself I would sort it out before the next fly season. Then the next fly season showed up right on time.

The first morning was a test and I knew it. He stood for it, which surprised me, then walked out and put his head down and ate like nothing had happened. I stayed at the gate a good ten minutes waiting for the head shaking to start. It did not. The ear covers sat where they were supposed to sit and the fleece along the brow was not pressing a raw spot into him. By the second week his eyes had quit watering. That is the whole review, really.

By the second week his eyes had quit watering and he had stopped shaking his head at the gate. Nothing else in his routine changed that month.

The fit is the part I would slow down on if you asked me. There is real fleece padding along the edges and across the brow, thick enough that the mask sits off the skin instead of bearing on it, and the closures are the touch kind, so you can get it snug without pinching. I check it every morning at turnout. In five and a half months of daily wear I never found a rub mark on him, and Ranger is a horse who will tell you loudly when something is bothering him.

The mesh on the Harrison Howard mask is finer than what I had before and he can see through it. That matters. Ranger is herd sour leaving the barn and I did not want him half blind out in the pasture. The listing calls the material midge proof and breathable, with lab tested UV protection, and the mask is unscented, which I appreciate, because some of them come out of the bag smelling like a tire fire. I am not a vet. I cannot measure UV. I can tell you his eyes quit watering and stayed quit.

Routine here is simple. It goes on in the morning when he goes out and comes off at evening feeding. He does not wear it overnight and he does not wear it under a bridle. I decided that early, because I would rather look at his eyes twice a day than guess at what is happening under a mask in the dark. When I took it off in the evening there was never anything under it but a little sweat at the jaw and a horse ready for his grain.

Mid October the season wound down. I washed the Harrison Howard mask in a bucket of warm water with a little mild soap, dried it flat on the porch rail, and put it in an old feed sack on the tack room shelf. It is still in one piece. The binding has gone fuzzy at the edges and the fleece is not as lofty as it was in May, but nothing has torn and no closure has failed. That is more than I can say for the one before it.

Two things I would say out loud. It weighs 6.7 ounces on the listing, light enough that Ranger barely noticed it, but he still rubbed it on a fence post the first week trying to get it off, so check the closures after that happens. And pick the size off the chart, not off what someone at the barn tells you. I measured and I am glad I did.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at my kitchen table with coffee and you asked me straight, here is what I would say. Flies at a horse's ears are not a small annoyance and they are not something he can fix on his own. A mask is a barrier, nothing more, and the only questions that matter are whether it stays where you put it and whether it rubs. For Ranger, the Harrison Howard CareMaster Pro did both for one full season, May through mid October, and it is washed and waiting for next spring. If your horse is tearing at his ears every May, I would start there before I bought another bottle of spray that has to go on every four hours. Measure the head. Follow the chart. Give it a week.