The Fly Mask That Finally Stopped the Eye Rubbing at Our Place

The first summer Biscuit's eyes got bad, I figured it was just the flies. He'd stand at the fence line and rub one eye on the top rail until the hair around it was thin and weepy. By the time we got to a jackpot, he'd toss his head the whole ride down the road, and a horse that fusses in the trailer is a horse that's already tired before the run starts.

Anybody who hauls knows what that means. A head-tossing horse in a two-horse bumper pull can rub his nose on the divider, fight the tie, and show up at the pen cranky. I tried sprays, and they worked about as long as it took the sweat to wash them off. I tried keeping him in the barn during the worst hours of the day, but you can't barn a barrel horse in July and expect him to be fit by September.

The Cashel Crusader is what finally stopped it. A neighbor who ropes said her gelding had worn one for three summers, and she handed me hers to try for a weekend. I bought my own before I gave it back.

The long nose on this one is the part I didn't expect to matter. Most fly masks stop at the cheek. This one comes down further, so when Biscuit puts his head down to graze, the mask doesn't ride up and leave his eyes bare. The ears are covered too, and those are where the little biting flies land when a horse is standing tied at the trailer waiting on his rider.

We've run it through two full summers now. It rides in a rubber tub behind the pickup seat, comes out at the trailer, goes on before he's tied to the side, and stays on through the cooldown walk until we load up to head for home. It has been rained on, dusted, and stepped on once in the aisle. It still fits like it did the day it showed up.

If your horse is rubbing his eyes raw, don't wait a summer to do something about it. The hair grows back, but the habit gets harder to break every time he does it. A fly mask is cheaper than a vet bill for a scratched cornea, and it saves you the worst sound there is: a horse that can't get comfortable in his own pasture.

Two summers of hauling to jackpots and he has not rubbed an eye raw once. That is the whole review.

Here's what a rodeo weekend actually does to a fly mask. It gets bumped by the trailer window, dropped in the dirt, washed in a bucket with dish soap when the dust gets ground in. The mesh on the Crusader has held up through all of it. The Velcro still grabs, the stitching around the edge hasn't pulled loose, and the foam padding over the ears is still in one piece.

Fit is where most masks lose me. Biscuit has a big head, and the Crusader has enough adjustment that it doesn't sit too tight over his eyes or so loose that it shifts when he drops his head to drink. I've seen cheap masks put a pressure sore behind a horse's ears. This one has padding there, and on a long haul he doesn't fuss with it at all.

The visibility is good too. He can see well enough to work in it, so it stays on from the time we unload until we load up. I've run him in it at a couple of local jackpots when the flies were thick in the warmup pen, and it never seemed to bother him. He still rated the barrels the same, still came home sound.

No fly mask is escape proof, and I won't pretend otherwise. A horse that's determined can get one off on a fence post, and there are horses that will rub on anything until they do. Biscuit has never tried. The long nose makes it harder to hook on something, and the ear coverage means there's less edge to catch.

Cashel makes a few different versions, and the long nose with ears is the one I'd buy again, and have. The plainer ones cost less, but if your horse rubs, the long nose covers the part that actually needs covering. I keep a spare in the tack room now, because the one thing worse than a fly mask that doesn't fit is no fly mask on a Saturday morning in July when you're already running late.

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

I'd tell you to watch your horse before you buy anything. If he just gets a few flies in the evening and doesn't rub, a basic fly mask will do. If he rubs, or if the flies drive him to head tossing in the trailer, spend the little extra on the long nose with ears. Wash it once a week in the summer, because a dirty mask holds heat and does nothing for the flies. Check the fit every time you put it on, same as you check a cinch. And if the mask comes off in the trailer, figure out why before you leave the driveway, because a mask that doesn't stay put is worse than none. The Cashel Crusader has been the right tool at our place, and it held up to everything a rodeo summer threw at it. That's the whole story, and I don't have anything else to sell you.