Fly sheets, fly spray keep the flies away! And in the heat, when I ride in the summer, I ride at 5:30 in the morning, to beat the heat. After I ride, I walk her out, then hose her down for a good 10 minutes on her legs, girth, chest and where the saddle went if it was a good work out. I do it in the morning because of all the bugs in the evening, they get so annoying, and I always run into clouds of little bugs. There is also a coolant that you can put on your horses legs. Eventers use it for XC to keep their horses legs cool in their long gallop, so if you plan on working your horse in the heat of the day, I would recommend using that, keep the scorch off a little!

Lucinda has a lot of good suggestions. To that, I will add that we turn out at night and keep them in the barn during the day. With the windows and doors open in the barn and the fans running, it stays a lot cooler than outside in the sun.

hook up a fan for them to stand in front of. it cools them off and keeps flies off them

lucinda what does garlic do for the horse? i never heard that before

plus how much do you give you horse that a day or just twice a week

I ride at 5:30-6:00am, cool hose down, fly spray, fans, garlic (granulated garlic- equivelant to 8 cloves daily) and 1 Cup apple cider vinger daily. The vinegar is great to prevent gastric stones and has a lot of health benefits, but my vet just told me that it helps with flies too. I agree with night time turn out and stalls with fans during the day. Fly sheets work great too. I have a geriatric horse who is having systemic allergic reactions to the flies this year despite all of the above measures. He's in hydroxyzine daily and that is working like a charm.

I would highly suggest NOT using garlic ! It is poisonous to horses causing damage to the spleen and it destroys the red blood cells. If you want a cheap home remedy for flies vinegar sprayed on them, put on food, or put into their water will keep the flies away. there's truth in the saying you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Along with the other suggestion, making sure there is fresh water every day to keep it cool and turning out in paddocks that provide enough shade for the horse will help. I put sunblock on my paint because the skin under his white burns. A daily hose down wouldn't hurt either.

fans and flyspray! leg bands, flymasks, fly creams etc...

Sometimes I'll give my horse a bath in the middle of the day and then fly spray him before letting him out again. Sometimes he doesn't even roll cause I think he's so happy to have the cool water on him.

Lots of fly spray, fly masks, baths, or fans