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[RC] yellow jacket desensitizing - Kelly Ahearn-Wagner

Our horses love the fruit that drops from our apple trees but they must compete with yellow jackets in order to eat it. The horses are routinely stung by the wasps, on their muzzles and legs, but they simply shake their heads, stomp, and keep eating. My friend was riding one of my Arabian mares at Silver Falls in Oregon awhile back with a group of other riders. They disturbed a wasp nest and when the horses were stung they all went bizerko, except for my mare, who calmly trotted on, shaking her head and stomping (probably wondering where the apples were). Last month I rode my Arabian gelding on the Oregon coast mountain trails and he was stung by wasps. He just stomped a bit and kept trotting. My Morgan has been stung numerous times during his eight plus years of endurance riding and he just keeps going. He thinks nothing of munching through a pile of yellow jacket infested apples - maybe it's like the bears getting stung by honey bees - the pain is worth the reward and they just get used to it.

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