Grazing muzzle that doesn't rub??

So, either a Dinky because the holes are in the right place or the new sheepskin Shires cut away, seem to be the ones that are coming out tops so far..?
 
Given up on the Dinky and Shires muzzle as both rubbed him red raw, plus he learnt to take them off, so spent god knows how many hours gorging! He is now muzzle free in a fatty paddock!
 
Dinky muzzles worked for me but horselet did chew through hers after a number of weeks :) How do they manage these things? She also rubbed away a lot of her chin whiskers, but no signs of it rubbing at her skin. I'll be moving to the greenguard next muzzling season, but I hope it works because it's blooming expensive for what it is!
 
A caveat to my 24/7 comment - if your grass is almost non-existent, they won't get any due to the depth of the rubber around the hole. If it's long and woody, they will struggle also. If it is about 2 inches long, they circle the hole to get the most grass standing upright within it, then bite. I have watched! My NF figured this out, then showed my TB!
 
Right, so I'm going to order the Shires fluffy one.

But I was thinking, if the hole is positioned too high and the horse moving the hole to the correct position causes rubbing, if I make the hole bigged, I was thinking of making it like a slit so that the bottom of the slit goes over her mouth. Does that make sense? Would it work?
 
I am reading with interest as i'm not having a good time with grazing muzzles!

Bought one last year to try & slim connie mare down for eventing, gave up after 3 days as she wouldn't move once it was on, just stood in a corner & sulked.

Dug it out this week to put on fat NF pony who needs to lose a lot of weight. Introduced it a few times on the yard & fed her bits of grass through the hole. Gave her soaked hay before i turned her out on decent grass (i'd read that grass has to be a certain length & her usual paddock is pretty bare) BIG mistake, she is out overnight & it was off when i got down at 8am & had probably had many hours of grazing time as her feet were rather warm. So, she is now in with restricted turn out during the day. I went & bought a ROMA one as the Shires one did seem very rigid. I put it on with a head collar over the top, pony is very unhappy & now starts self harming (has anyone else had this?) Came in after 3 hours with huge grazes down the inside of near hind. Tried again today & she now has a swollen, weeping eye where she's tried to rub it off.

I'm on the verge of giving up again. Where am i going wrong? They seem like such a great idea.

Just to add that i'm a softy & she goes out with her best friend for an hour or so first thing without it on so that they can groom :-) I then catch her & pop it on for 3-4 hours before i check on her.
 
it is depressing having to do the whole 'diet' thing isn't it, I feel like such an evil person having had to catch my mare in her fatty paddock to get a muzzle on so that she could go out in her normal herd, she just looked so down. I'm doing everything I'm told is best but I feel bad for her. At least I know that by bringing her in for a few hours she is getting soaked hay, she can't be starving as she didn't finish it today but her face when I left her in the muzzle was heartbreaking. Not sure I can do this long term, maybe she'd be happier in her fatty paddock and not with her mates at all, the only reason I went for a muzzle is to give her some big field herd time.
 
HazyXmas I too have a NF, she's soon got the idea that the muzzle wasn't coming off so now just gets on with it.

She does though get weepy eyes in relation to flies so that may not be muzzle related.
 
I know how you feel, I was quite fractious about whether Frank would work them out/would he eat anything/would he sulk etc etc - he also has it so he can go out with another rather than on his own.

If it helps as time has gone on he has just got better and better, doesn't hang around when I let him loose just starts munching. Had a slight setback when I changed the muzzle type as they have to eat differently with the shires than the dinky but I really don't worry about him at all now.

I did however cut a big hole in the bottom of the first dinky one he had so that he could get used to eating with it on. So my only suggestion would be to be prepared to make some major adjustments to your first one! Said muzzle - which effectively has no bottom unless tied up with baler twine/gaffa tape is now on a friends horse who was a proper muzzle hater and it definitely seems to slow them down still even though looking at it it shouldn't!

ETA at start I would also be tempted to leave it on for a fair while so they think that is just how it is.. to start F presumed it was a dodgy patch of grass so would try elsewhere rather than attempt to get it off but now I essentially like him to think that eating grass is difficult and it isn't necessarily the muzzles fault ;)
 
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Another vote for the Shires deluxe / furry one here. He's admittedly only out in it for max 7 hours a day while our very lush grass gets eaten down a bit by the others, but no rubs after 2 weeks. I bought the full size to get enough length poll to mouth, but handily that left the muzzle itself a bit lose/wide, which may have helped avoid rubbing.
 
I like the dinky muzzles. Never known them rub, but I would never leave a horse 24/7 in any muzzle. They need a break. I usually pen them during the day with forage and put out in a muzzle at night.
 
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