June 4, 2013 — The Bucas Buzz off Zebra Fly Sheet-Full Neck flysheet and matching fly mask sport the newest design strategy to keep pesky bugs off of your horses—black and white stripes! Just like the zebras on the African plains, your horse can keep flies away with stripes. Following trials in Europe, the manufacturer says researchers discovered that horse flies hate stripes–enter the new Bucas’ pattern to keep your horse bite-free in the pasture.
According to Bucas, “Scientists painted wooden pallets containing vegetable oil different patterns of black and white stripes or all black or all white. These pallets were then placed in a fly-infested field and results showed that there were far more flies in the black painted pallets, fewer in the white but the fewest flies of all were found in the pallets painted with very thin black and white stripes.
“Afterwards, researchers carried out a similar trial on model horses covered in glue,” the company noted. “At the end of 59 days, the black horse had caught 562 flies, the brown one 334, the white one 22 and the zebra patterned horse had just eight! It is thought that the flies find the stripes confusing and as a result they tend to steer clear.”
Based on this research, Bucas developed a first-of-its-kind flysheet with thin, zebra-like stripes to keep horses free from the stresses of summer flies. This unique zebra fly sheet, which is the same tried and true design pattern as the Bucas standard Buzz Off fly sheet, has shoulder darts for extra room and movement, a stitched-on full neck, which overlaps in front to ensure no flies can get in and goes all the way to the ears, a belly flap for further protection and it’s made from a fine mesh fabric ensuring that even the smallest of flies won’t have access to your horse. What’s more, there’s the option of a matching fly mask. Also includes added UV protection.
Goodnight says that her horse Dually has “a full wardrobe of apparel—blankets for every season and boots for every activity. These things are not necessary for the horse’s survival, but they are important to me. I want my horse to look good all year long—not sunburned, shaggy, scraped-up or bug-bitten. I want to make sure that when I load him in the trailer or ask him to perform a high-speed maneuver in the arena that he is protected from injury as much as possible as he does my bidding.
“A few years ago I was fortunate to discover a new line of horse blankets, Bucas, a well-established European company, using high-tech materials and superior design features, which keep the horses comfortable and cozy in all four seasons,” Goodnight continued. “The shape and cut of the blankets are far more comfortable than other brands I have used, fitting really well at the shoulders and withers, with a remarkable attention to detail. The durability of Bucas blankets is exceptional—after two full winters of use, Dually’s heavy blanket looked practically new after washing (he is notoriously hard on blankets, and we have very long winters). And because of the high-tech materials, the winter blankets are comfortable in a wide range of temperatures; temps can fluctuate up to 40 degrees between day and night here in the high Colorado mountains, so one blanket replaces the need to be switching between a heavy- and medium-weight blanket.
“Since our horses get turned out in wooded fields with other horses with their blankets on, they can be pretty tough on them,” she said. “Over the years I have found that it is cheaper in the long run to pay more for a high-quality blanket that you can get many years’ use of, rather than buy a cheap, ill-fitting blanket that falls apart in the middle of the winter.
“Our horses wear blankets or sheets all year long,” Goodnight stated. “In the summer, they wear Bucas fly/sun sheets during the day to protect from insects and to keep their dark, richly colored coats from burning in the harsh high-altitude sun.”
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