First time wearing grazing muzzle - need reassurance

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yvonne36

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My wee mare has been on box rest for nearly 6 months now due to laminitis and then sore feet. As a result of this - she is a very good doer - she has put on nearly 100 kgs and really has to lose weight so yesterday she had a day out with the herd and today she has the dreaded grazing muzzle on. She went out at 7.30 and will be coming in at about 4.30. Is this too long? There is not much grass in the field but it is coming and she is a very good doer. I'm feeling sooooo guilty because she is just standing about and trying to eat but can't get anything.
 
I wouldn’t worry my mare has learnt how to eat bits through it but she always comes in hungry. I always let her out for an hour without it then put it on for the rest of the day or the other way round if you have trouble catching.

Don’t feel guilty you are doing it for her own good and the alternative is that she stands in the stable so at least she is getting some fresh air and is socialising with others.
 
From now till October my shetland lives in his - with out it he doesnt get a life, or to go out and eat for a long time - ie the day - the whole in his muzzle is perhaps the size of a 50p piece and he is just fine on it
 
How has girly managed to put on so much weight on box rest, especially if laminitic? Little Lad (good doer) had three months box rest due to lammi and lost a load of weight. We had to watch his feed like a hawk and soak his hay so he could be occupied but not put on weight.

LL is pretty useless with a muzzle on, so depending on the grass and the quality, we either leave him without a muzzle for an hour and then turn out with a muzzle for the rest of the time; put him in a small paddock with some hay for company; electric fence off a section of field so he can have a wander and eat what is there (only have to watch he doesn't jump out!); or have him out with a muzzle, but bring him in during the day with soaked hay for company.
 
I would be a little wary of putting a muzzle on your horse after my experience with them. My WB has a very delicate stomach and has had repeated spasmodic colic attacks during the 4.8 years I have owned him. I tried a grazing muzzle as our yard is built on a farm that has grazed a dairy herd for hundreds of years and the grazing is therefore very rich. When he managed to lose the muzzle in the field one day (which they nearly all do at some point) he gorged himself and got quite a bad colic and this happened again a couple of times after this. Horses are very clever at undoing/breaking muzzles when they want to despite tightening them up each time. I came to teh conclusion that restricted grazing by only going out for a few hours a day was the way forward with him and touch wood this has worked very well. I woudl be wary of turning your mare out in a muzzle in case she should lose it as she would gorge herself silly and could then get laminitis. It would be better to restrict her by bringing her in for half a day or strip grazing with electric fence. Just a warning anyway.
 
My horse has had to wear one (greenguard) due to ripping rugs not coz he is fat!! He stood in field for about 3 weeks looking completely pi**ed off and depressed!

I felt so guilty but eventually he found out that he could actually eat with it on and is fine now, maybe he is just a bit thick!

Don't worry she will get the hang of it, although my boy has now found out that he can get the damn thing off by either scratching it with a back leg or prising it off on a fence!!
Thankfully horses starting to go out naked now so he won't need it on much longer!!
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I'd agree that a bare paddock is a much better option. My boy was an expert at breaking his muzzle to get it off - whatever make or type I tried. Some horses are very good at managing to get the grass through the muzzle too - some of them up to 50% of what they would normally get without one.
 
George wouldn't eat at all when we first put one on him, just stood for hours, so we made the hole in the bottom a little bit bigger for him! Seemed to do the trick, he only got it off once during the whole summer, meant he could go out all day with his friends. If I had ridden and knew he was only going to go out for another hour he got to go muzzleless much to his joy!
 
My mare learned very quickly how to eat and drink with hers on, although I did worry about her drinking as it looked like it would drown her when it filled up, but she managed fine!
A whole day is alot to start with, I started with an hour for the first few days.
This year we are having a starvation paddock instead, as she is an expert at shredding grazing muzzles and I have to buy a new one every month!
Also, be prepared for some people to take exception to it. Someone on my yard got very cross with me and told me I was cruel. In retrospect, should have told them to p**s off, as laminitis is much more cruel.
 
pare paddock and strip graze that is more naturall then having a muzzle on i know some poeple have to use them but my horse went mental and starting chuling him self into things trying to get his off!
 
Watch out for rubbing, too. Henry has a Best Friend one, but in trying to get it off (he succeeded!), he rubbed two sores on his muzzle. I have made the hole slightly larger than it started, as he really couldn't suss it out. Elsewhere, this muzzle is fine - the head and cheek pieces are both padded well. I needed mine last year to reintriduce grass, as despite it being quite bare (November), it was still a metabolic overload for his little tum.
 
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