Poison ivy and I go way back. But, they don’t go further back than my horses. I never truly experienced poison ivy until I got horses. The poison ivy problem started with them, and they have been forever linked.
It’s completely possible this is entirely a me problem. In fact, anyone that I’ve ever told this too has never experienced it. I seem to be the sole victim of this.
I am speaking, of course, of horse induced poison ivy. Yes, I get it from my horses.
It started back when I was but a wee lass, with my horses in my parent’s backyard. (their backyard was 15 acres, you know the typical American property). We had several pastures – the first, was basically in our immediate backyard, and it was simple grass, just like you’d expect a yard to look. The second was in “the back five.” The poison ivy troubles started when we moved the horses there.
That field was a bit more wild. It was further away, separated from the first pasture by woods and a stream. With the distance we had to walk to get there, it felt like a completely different world. So we felt that it was pretty normal that it was a bit weedy compared to our original field.
I would visit my horses, as one does, and then I’d be covered in poison ivy. It was all over my ankles, my own fault for walking through it I suppose, but then also, all over my arms. I wasn’t rolling in the poison ivy. I was only sticking my feet in, and I was wearing boots, but I assume it got all over my pants and boots and then made its way to my ankles. Made sense, and maybe if I tried a little harder I could avoid the poison ivy.
But the arm poison ivy was a different story. The arm poison ivy was unavoidable. It was coming from the most adorable of sources – my horses’ muzzles. Yes, those adorable little snoots were giving me massive poison ivy outbreaks. They would eat around the poison ivy, but their muzzles would touch the plant, putting the oils on their noses. I’ve learned that horses don’t care about poison ivy, they have no reaction to it. They sometimes even eat it (more on that coming up!). It doesn’t effect them all all.
But that oil sticks to their noses. And it stays active for a very long time.
The best solution I had then, and really now too, is poison ivy soap. Regular soap does not get the sap off. That stuff is like glue or something, I don’t know. (yes, that’s a Futurama reference). So use poison ivy soap as soon as possible after exposure. That will limit the spread and help you get over it faster.
Poison Ivy Soap
Removes the oils that cause poison ivy rash and helps relieves itching.
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Even though the soap helped, it’s tough to stop working with a horse to go wash yourself off immediately. Which is why I basically accepted that my summers were poison ivy hellscapes, with some fun rides thrown in. Eventually, we all moved on, and I figured that was the end of my poison ivy nightmare, after all, how many more pastures can there be with the horrible amount of poison ivy that my parents nurtured?
When I first brought my horses to my current home, I had to find a source for hay. Finding a good hay source is one of the most annoying and vital tasks required of those keeping their horses at home. Therefore I went with the “easy” source of my parent’s farm.
They still had their property, but with the absence of farm animals, they had someone cutting hay on their land. Despite the incredible disadvantage of them being over an hour away, the hay not being that cheap anyway, and having to manually pick up the hay from the field, I missed one huge disadvantage. In fact, I didn’t discover this until I had done a huge amount of work bringing the hay to my farm.
The hay was filled with poison ivy. But surely since it’s now in hay form, it’s okay right? Not at all. It still had its oil, and that oil made it’s way through my winter clothes and imbedded on to my skin.
Not using it was not an option to me. I had put in all that effort manually picking up every hay bale off the field, moving it to a shed, putting it in my truck, driving it, unloading it, and stacking it, and paying for the privilege, that I was going to use the dang hay.
It was the winter of misery. It may go without saying, but I never got hay off my parent’s farm again.
After that experience, I had years of being poison ivy free. My field had none growing, and my hay supplier didn’t have any in their hay. It was a blissful existence, one that I can see now that I didn’t appreciate nearly enough. For you see, the poison ivy is back.
It started when I moved Stu to his current barn. One day, while walking the field, I spotted the horrible plant. I spent the rest of the day telling everyone I saw at the barn how absolutely horrible poison ivy is, and how my horses used to give it to me. Everyone else seemed surprised, as this had never happened to them. I took that as a positive sign, maybe the field is so big that the horses completely avoid it.
But alas, once again I am stricken with it. It runs up and down my arms. It seems that I’m either highly allergic to it, or just the most unlucky rider whose horses love to indulge in a bit of the herb. I really don’t know which it is, because just like everyone said when I first brought this up, I am the only person at my barn covered in poison ivy. This literally seems to only happen to me.
Luckily I have advanced a bit since my youth, as I did get prescription strength medicine for poison ivy. I had no idea it existed until my husband went to the doctor for his poison ivy from our poisoned hay winter. I didn’t even realize going to the doctor was an option, I thought one just endured the rash until it finally faded away. But no, you can actually get medicine for it, it’s called Clobetasol.
Since this seems to be a me problem, I’ve decided I’m bringing poison ivy soap to the barn, and I’m going to live in long sleeve shirts. Doesn’t matter the weather, I’m taking no chances. Maybe gloves full time, too. In fact, I’ll just go full hazmat suit to make sure I’m safe. It’ll be good desensitizing for the horses, too!
Anyone else suffering from the poison ivy problem?
rooth
I’m so jealous re the giant hay field but no thx to poison ivy. I’m allergic to hay and already break out in hives when the horses lick my skin so I can’t even imagine what poison ivy would do