Against sweet itch, distance does the work

Against sweet itch, what helps most is whatever keeps the midge away from the horse. Which timings, fields and rugs achieve that, and where the vet takes over.

Sweet itch is less a grooming subject than a geography subject. Culicoides midges bite at dusk and dawn, by preference on still evenings near standing water, and they bite the same places every time. So everything that works happens before the bite, not after it.

What helps most is whatever keeps the midge off the horse in the first place.

The midge keeps office hours

Culicoides fly mainly in the hours after sunrise and the hours before sunset. They like still air, damp pasture, ditches and streams. Turn out in the middle of the day, bring the horse in towards dusk, and choose a field with a breeze across it, and you have done most of the work without putting anything on the horse at all.

The mane crest and the tail head

The usual places are the mane crest, the dock, the midline of the belly and sometimes the ears and face. That is where the rubbing starts, and the rubbing is the real damage: it opens the skin, and open skin is the beginning of everything that follows. A horse scrubbing its mane out on a fence post does not need a brush, it needs a plan.

What makes a good sweet itch rug

A rug for this job is a tent and not a garment. Fine mesh, pale, airy, and it has to cover exactly where the biting happens: neck up to the ears, mane crest, belly, tail head. It must not slip, because a rug that slips rubs open the very places it is there to protect.

• Look underneath it daily, not just at it.
• Fit before price: neck, belly flap and tail flap all have to sit.
• Two rugs in rotation, so that one can be washed and dried.
• Check seams and straps before they wear a patch raw.

Leave the skin alone

Sweat under the rug can be rinsed off with lukewarm water, then left to dry rather than rubbed dry. Stiff brushes, curry combs and vigorous combing have no business on irritated skin. Less irritation means less itching, and less itching means less rubbing. That is the whole chain, and it runs in both directions.

The rug, the clock and the field decide more than anything you can hold in your hand.