For all those who don’t know it yet, my New Forest Pony “Merlin” (in the picture) is sweet itch. Really gross sweet itch. And since I just can’t believe that there is still no panacea for this disease I regularly search the internet forums. With fatal consequences. Not only are the most hair-raising treatment tips recommended there and concerned horse owners suddenly start using strong chemicals in the kitchen, but the insults the group members call each other are sometimes really unbelievable.

That’s where I’m out, I’m not taking part. But why does it come to this?

I think because there are many other causes for itching in horses besides sweet itch. Often the “(self-)diagnosis” of sweet itch is made hastily. Other reasons can also be the trigger for horses to chafe. Parasite infestation, metabolic problems or simply the fact that the horse is bored – just to name a few reasons. You can already see – a complex problem.

In order to get to the bottom of the myths surrounding this much discussed topic I have looked up in scientific and veterinary literature. I found facts about sweet itch, but also interesting facts about herbal extracts and oils. These cannot work wonders and cannot cure eczema – but they can help your pet to get through the eczema season in a more bearable way.

Your Marie-Christine from the CXEVALO® Team <3

Sweet itch: the facts.

Sweet itch (horse) – known as “Insect Bite Hypersesitivity (IBH)” – is an allergic dermatitis. It is an allergy-related, inflammatory reaction of the horse’s skin to insect bites. Especially the bites of the insect genus Gnitz, but also those of the common biting fly, horseflies and mosquitoes can therefore trigger this allergic reaction in horses. If the insects bite the horse’s skin, certain allergenic substances are “inoculated”. The places on the horse’s body where the eczema is most pronounced: Linea alba – i.e. the midline on the horse’s belly – udder, hose, mane area, withers and tail attachment. Up to now, no medication or medical treatment has been found which could prevent this allergic reaction. But there is a lot of research going on.

In order to keep the effects of sweet itch in the affected horses as low as possible, there is already an important measure:

If possible, to avoid that the horse is stung by the allergenic insects. This can be achieved either by a sweet itch/fly blanket or by spraying a repellent against insects regularly and without gaps – or of course a combination of both.

If the eczema is already advanced, it is advisable to wash twice a week with a particularly mild horse shampoo to keep the wounds clean and remove the remains of dead insects and to treat the wounds with e.g. a zinc ointment. In times of really strong itching the vet should be called in. By administering an anti-inflammatory medication he can provide short-term relief so that the damaged skin can regenerate. (Montes, Leopoldo, & Vaughan, 1983), (Schaffartzik, Hamaza, Janda, Crameri, & Marti, 2012)

Herbal ingredients that can help relieve symptoms

Some oils and extracts can also be obtained from nature, which contribute to the regeneration of damaged skin or are used as active ingredients in a mosquito spray. But one thing you must be aware of: even these herbal substances are not a miracle cure, everyone must find out for himself and his horse which care combination is best suited. The most important thing is prevention, so that there are as few allergy-causing bites as possible.

Here are the names of some oils and extracts I have found:

Eucalyptus Citriodora oil (abbreviation: EC Oil (HC))
An oil extracted from the leaves of the lemon eucalyptus provides long-lasting protection against mosquitoes and biting flies. Eucalyptus citriodora oil is contained in CXEVALO® Repellent, for example.

Mint oil
As an ingredient in a particularly mild horse shampoo, mint oil can provide a cooling effect that soothes itching. Mint oil is contained in CXEVALO® cooling shampoo, for example.

Hamamelis extract
The plant is also known as witch hazel and its extract contains tanning agents and tannin components that have anti-inflammatory effects, among other things. This has even been proven in studies. Witch hazel extract is used for mild skin injuries and local inflammation of the skin (Jänicke, Grünwald, & Brendler, 2003). Hamamelis extract is contained e.g. in CXEVALO® coat care spray.

One of my favorite things about shopping is studying ingredients on hair care products in drugstores. And also the other day I’m standing in front of the shelf again and have a bottle in my hand while the girls next to me talk about the ideal shampoo for their shiny, long, dark brown hair: “Is there no silicone in it anyway? I hear one of the girls say. Inside I have to laugh, because that’s exactly what I was about to look up on the label. Only water, soap and caring agents can get to my hair – but certainly no silicones. “That ruins your hair in the long run”, I hear the other one say – “how right she is”, I think and put a shampoo without silicones in my shopping basket.

What do silicones do?

Silicones are used in hair and coat care products in the form of so-called silicone oils. These oils have the property that they spread very quickly in all directions, so even in the hair or on the coat every hair, no matter how small, can be found. This property is called high spreading. The silicone oil, which is contained in many shampoos or (mane) sprays, lies like a thin film around each hair during application and thus ensures that the brush glides better through the hair and the coat or long hair looks shiny.the thin film of silicone oil, which lies around the hair with each application, becomes thicker and thicker over time. Each time you wash or spray it, a new layer of silicone is added. At some point, this layer is so heavy that the hair can break off.

Why we do not want that:

Even if the hair looks super shiny after application with a silicone-based care product – appearances are deceptive. Under the silicone layer the hair can dry out more and more – and we don’t want that. But how can you tell that a care product contains silicone? You have to study the ingredients on the packaging – they should always be printed on the packaging of a good product, this is a real sign of quality, we want to know what we spray on our horse, don’t we? If the name of an ingredient ends with -cone or -xane you can assume that the product contains silicones.

What does a body lotion have to do with a coat care spray?

I am often asked: “What is different about your coat care spray than a normal mane spray”, and then I always talk about the following comparison: the classic mane spray with silicone is like make-up for us women. We put make-up on to look beautiful, maybe for a date, the office or a special party. That’s completely okay, but if I always use make-up and don’t use a moisturizing cream underneath it and don’t remove my make-up in the evening, I’ll look pretty unkempt at some point. So the mane spray is the make-up that you can use if, for example, a tournament is coming up and the horse should be especially pretty. And the CXEVALO® coat care spray? Well, that is the body lotion with – vegetable extracts and oils – which I use regularly to ensure healthy horse skin and well-groomed horse fur – and then the shine comes all by itself, even without silicones. Because healthy coat is shiny coat.

Under the #equestrianfashion you can find over 229.000 articles on Insta. The outfit of our horses seems to be almost more important than the riding itself. At least when it comes to presentation on social media. You could say now that the whole thing has taken some pretty crazy forms. But hey, we’re horse girls, we’re allowed to…

Whatever your opinion on the topic of horse outfits, you can be sure: with sweat blankets, saddlecloths, bandages, riding breeches, riding jackets and co. an enormous pile of laundry accumulates every week. Even for those of us whose horses do NOT wear a different colour-coordinated outfit every day. Sooner or later the clothes will get dirty anyway.

And then the question arises: use a normal detergent? But what if my horse reacts allergic to the detergent residues in normal human detergents or gets irritated by the artificial detergent scent?

We now have the solution for this! More about this in my new blog entry.

Your Marie-Christine

How does a detergent work?
So-called washing-active substances (soaps) are mainly responsible for keeping laundry clean. In the technical language also called surfactants. You can imagine surfactants as small balls with a looooooong tail on them.

Surfactant molecule
This is roughly how a detergent looks in detail.
The long tail sucks the dirt out of the laundry and the round ball ensures that the absorbed dirt is washed out of the laundry with the rinse water. Depending on what is needed, a detergent can also contain bleach, fragrances and many other additives.

Does the whole thing also exist naturally?
The whole thing sounds ziiiiemlich chemical – but that also exists in natural. How does it work? By using a vegetable oil to produce the detergent – in the case of CXEVALO®, olive oil. The olive oil is boiled up with a lye and thereby an olive oil soap is created which we use as raw material for our horse textile detergent. How does this work with conventional detergents? Well, soaps are made from crude oil, palm oil or sometimes also from animal fat. But we certainly don’t use anything like that in our products.

A detergent for horse clothes!
There are horses that cannot smell a normal human detergent or even react allergic to it. Why is that so? Well, horses are by nature not made to come into contact with detergent. Synthetic fragrances can cause a cough or artificial soaps can cause skin irritation or allergy. It is good that CXEVALO® now offers an alternative for horses. Specially developed for the washing of horse blankets, saddlecloths and Co. but also your riding breeches and sweaters will be super clean with it. The olive oil soaps provide natural cleanliness and the contained sage oil provides a pleasant natural scent that does not irritate your horse. Insider tip: The contained sage oil is also said to have a slightly desifying effect. So your riding clothes will be hygienically clean despite natural care.

Clean grey horses? Of course!

Every owner of a grey horse knows the problem. Yellow spots all over the horse’s body! There is hardly anything more beautiful than a bright white grey, the white tail of a Haflinger, the white spots of a piebald or white horse legs. But how do you get your horse white again? In my current blog entry you will learn what you have to look out for when buying a good grey horse shampoo, when the only thing that helps is to “cut off” it and how to make your horse shine white again – without any bleach of course!

Enjoy reading,
your Marie from CXEVALO®

There are very different types of grey shampoos. Some work with particularly aggressive soaps, some with bleach, some with silver particles and then there is the grey shampoo from CXEVALO®. When I started to develop a grey shampoo it was clear to me: I don’t want bleach, aggressive soaps and silver particles – well, there are some…I wanted to create a very special shampoo for the suffering grey horse owners. As always we started with our mild vegetable soap base, adjusted to the pH-value of the horse’s skin. So far so good, that alone makes the grey horse reasonably clean, but it is not the ultimate grey horse shampoo yet. So a trick was needed. That’s when I remembered my physics lessons and the theory of colours. Sounds complicated, but it’s not…so I mixed a little bit of bluish colour into the mould shampoo. This bluish color makes the yellow wavelengths from sunlight “swallow”, so to speak, and reflects only the white light, making it visible to our eyes. Et voila – the result is a brilliant white grey horse. Cool, isn’t it? Sure, yellow corroded horse fur will not get white anymore – corroded? Yes, there is…more about that if you read on!

Surely you know one of those countless advertisements for hair colors in which manufacturers talk about the so-called “ammonia”. Well – horse urine and horse dumplings contain a lot of ammonia by nature and are therefore real chemical and hair dye bombs! No wonder that the beautiful white coat turns yellow at some point. This process can be reversed as long as urine and horse dumpling remains are regularly brushed and/or washed out of the horse’s coat. If you are careless here even for a few weeks, urine and dumpling residues will etch themselves into the horse’s coat and change the hair permanently – just like when we have our hair dyed at the hairdresser. Even the best horse shampoo is no match for this. There is only one thing that helps: Cut it off or simply let the yellow spots grow out patiently. Once horse hair has been etched with ammonia, it can no longer be made white. (Wild horse owners in particular resort to bleaching lye in their distress – but this is strongly discouraged. Severe burns and damage to the horse’s skin can be the result). So better wait patiently for new hair to grow back and then brush and wash it regularly. How to use a grey horse shampoo correctly you will learn if you read on

Even the best mould shampoo only works if you use it correctly. But with a few little tricks it’s super easy! The power of the mildew shampoo lies in its foam. The more foam you create, the better the shampoo can spread on your horse and the cleaner it becomes. How to make a real foam party? First of all, you get your horse really wet. Because only enough water produces enough foam. Drop the shampoo into your hands, onto a washing glove or washing brush and foam the shampoo thoroughly with a little water. Then off with the foam on the horse. Now it is time to massage the horse (e.g. with a washing glove). Not only will your horse enjoy the massage, the mechanical force increases the foam formation and removes stubborn dirt even better from the horse’s coat. Rinse thoroughly with clear water – done! Well how does it look like? Are you now also dazzled by so much white beauty

The days are getting much shorter and cooler again and slowly, very slowly, the mosquitoes are also getting fewer and fewer. Finally our darlings, plagued by itching and sweet itch, can relax a little. But bald, chafed spots and wounds on the comb of the mane, tail and belly seam remain as unpleasant “memories” of the summer for many weeks.

How skin, long hair and fur of your favourite will recover faster, I will tell you in this blog article.

Have fun reading,
your Marie

Treat with plant extracts

There are a number of plants that help your horse to regenerate skin, coat and long hair from the outside. I would like to introduce four of them to you in more detail:

Birch extract: Birch water is a real hair-wax boost. It strengthens the hair roots and makes sure that the rubbed off coat and long hair grows back strongly.

: Nettle extract: Nettle is a real “anti-dandruff herb”. Particularly after the itching period, there is often a lot of dandruff, as the callus caused by the pushing is gradually detached in the form of dandruff. I know this all too well from my own experience: in the past, our Merlin just “rained” dandruff. Thanks to nettle extract, we are now as good as rid of the dandruff.

Witch hazel extract: the horse’s skin has also been badly affected in the last few weeks. Witsch hazel extract is now a real boon – it regenerates areas that have been postponed and ensures that the skin can recover from the strains of sweet itch.

Neem extract: due to the many thrushes and itching, the coat and long hair has become dull and pale. Neem extract is a natural shine boost that gives the hair back a healthy look.

Essential oils help the skin

In the right dosage, essential oils can work wonders in horse (skin) care. IMPORTANT: never use the oils pure – even if they are natural products, pure essential oils are too “spicy” for sensitive horse skin!

I have selected three selected oils for you, which are especially suitable for horses suffering from eczema and itching:

Lavender oil: thanks to its skin caring properties, it is often used to treat itching and to treat wounds. The oil can also be used for insect bites. It is therefore ideal if your horse reacts to mosquito bites with severe itching.

Tea tree oil: due to its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties, tea tree oil is ideal for the care of itchy and sweet itchy skin.

Clove oil:  has a broad antiseptic (= germ-reducing) effect and can thus prevent pathogens from penetrating the (scratched) wounds. Clove oil also has an astringent (= contracting) anti-inflammatory and anti-itching effect.

What gives us the right to claim that we really know about sweet itch? Perhaps the fact that we ourselves adopted a severe eczema more than 10 years ago and have invested a lot of research and development time in our eczema care since then: At that time, our Merlin could not live a summer’s day without his sweet itch blanket and even with a blanket he was bloody on his mane comb, tail, ears, face, belly seam and hose. Then we started to develop CXEVALO®. Today Merlin enjoys the summer without a blanket to the fullest – the symptoms have improved extremely. Now it is our goal to enable as many horses as possible who suffer from sweet itch and/or itching to have a summer without complaints! That is why the CXEVALO® care combination “Eczema & Co” is available for the three decisive care steps. How does it work and why it works? We explain this to you in this blog entry. Enjoy reading!

relieve acute itchingIn horse skin (as in human skin) there are tiny receptors that are responsible for feeling. The receptors that are responsible for feeling itchiness are located directly next to the receptors that are responsible for feeling cold. If one stimulates – by washing with cooling shampoo for example – the cold receptors of the horse skin, the pleasantly cool feeling “covers” the activity of the itching receptors and the acute itching is noticeably relieved. By the way, this phenomenon works for all types of itching, not only for sweet itch. The pleasant cooling effect of CXEVALO® Cooling Shampoo comes from natural mint oil. The big plus: Mint oil also has a disinfecting effect.

regenerate skin and stimulate new hair growthDue to the constant itching and subsequent scratching, the horse’s skin is affected quite badly and often bloody, bald spots remain on the horse’s body. Time to regenerate the skin and stimulate hair growth anew. This works best with the natural herbs in CXEVALO® coat care spray.

Hamamelis extract has a soothing effect on the skin and regenerates chafed areas. Birch extract stimulates hair growth and nettle extract helps against unloved dandruff. Clove, tea tree and lavender oil also have a disinfecting effect. Simply spray the coat care spray on the affected areas and massage it into the skin with your hand, a brush or the coat care glove.

avoid allergenic mosquito bitesReal sweet itch is caused by an allergic reaction to mosquito bites. The most important thing is therefore that your horse gets bites as little as possible. For this you need a really strong mosquito repellent. But it should be natural and as well tolerated as possible, because the weakened horse skin must not be irritated even more by aggressive chemicals. It’s a good thing that there is an active ingredient called Eucalyptus Citriodora – which not only works super well, but is also derived from a plant. And so that the mosquito repellent can also have a long-lasting and reliable effect, it is incorporated into an emulsion. This sticks to the coat for a particularly long time. And we also use a lot of active ingredient in CXEVALO® Repellent – namely 20%. That is more than twice as much as in conventional sprays. So your horse is well protected from allergy-causing mosquitoes and ideally – as with our Merlin – the annoying sweet itch blanket is gone forever. Finally summer can come.