All good except my horse has come out in lumps and bumps

Not to worry, nothing too sinister; however it seems my horses immunity is not currently up to scratch to ward off insect bites here in Finland. Over the past week she has come up in lumps and bumps pretty much all over her neck, back and belly. 

I am not the one to wrap her in cotton wool, as I think horses should be able to cope with being outside – especially in the loveliest part of the year, summer! But I had to relent, as flies were bothering her eyes and the undercarriage was quite mightily bumpy... Soon enough I was advised to mix some tar in some plain skin cream (Tummeli), which I slapped on the bumpy skin. 

Rainbow isn't showing signs of being sore or itchy, but I reckoned that such a number on bumps must be uncomfortable. The day before yesterday I totally relented and drove to a shop to buy some 'better' ointment and also grabbed a fly rug for her to wear for a while. Very pleased, as, by doing this, applying Nylanders Hästkräm mixed in with some cooking oil and putting the fly rug on top she is now visibly less bumpy and hopefully not feeling too uncomfortable.

The warm weather and also being now outside 24/7 is also affecting her. She's feeling and looking a bit tired. I hope it will pass and she doesn't feel quite so overwhelmed by the fresh air for too long. However, it has been rather warm, too, so no wonder. I have been feeling it as well. 

But then, in other news. We went out for our first hack on Sunday. Yay! With four new friends! (Two horses and two riders). I was hesitant at first and said to my friends that let's just walk around some really short route and they can then drop us back off at the yard and continue somewhere themselves. But, as we set off, it soon became quite obvious that nothing was wondrous or scary to Rainbow and she was quite happy to be ambling behind our Finn horse friend and in front of the other warmblood friend, so we continue the whole way with our friends in the end. We went up and down a hilly forest track. The sun was shining and rays sifting through the woods in the forest. There were no cars, other people or anything. We just trotted along in the sunshine. Bliss. 

I was ecstatic afterwards, telling everyone on Facebook how wonderful my horse is and how wonderful a hack we had. A fab start. Hope there's more to come !