grazing muzzles.....

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ldlp111

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well basically H has had one on now during day hours from roughly 9.30am to 9pm but i'm not sure he gets the concept of being able to eat with it on:confused: this worries me as obviously as soon as it's off he'll stuff his face:(
I've tried pushing treats through hole which he eats and grass etc but everytime I look at him he is just stood there looking miserable :(:rolleyes:
 
Give him time, he'll get there in the end! But I know exactly what your going through.
I've just had my first experience of using one this year & my mare looked miserable for days, before she got the hang of it. She doesn't appear to like wearing it, but is always happy to get back in the field with the green stuff & her friends overnight (shes kept in the arena with soaked hay during the day).
Hang in there!

ps also if the grass is very short/long it can cause issues in getting the grass through the hole, so ideally the field needs to have varying lengths of grass until they figure out which length is best for them.
 
How long has he been wearing it? We have found it takes about a week for them to sort it out. Make sure its not rubbing on the sensitive areas. I have put fake fur around some bits of my cob's muzzle
 
May we swap horses- I'd rather have one who can't quite work out what to do with a muzzle on than one who can get them off. I've tried 3 types of muzzle now on mine and none have lasted more than 10 minutes! Your horse will get there in the end :)
 
Mine hated his originally and had great trouble working out how to eat through it. Unlike the other cobs who still managed to stuff their faces whilist wearing theirs!! His also rubbed his face but after a week or so the skin hardened up and it was fine, he learnt in about a week how to eat through it and i havent seen any more pawing out in the field since!!
 
Quite agree Chaps89!! The laminitic section A who I look after has mastered the art of removal of a shires muzzle and also a Greenguard one too! As the latter is £70 to buy it's a very expensive trial and error to find one she cannot remove!!! Has anyone found one that is completely removable-proof?? I phoned the makers of Greenguard and they admitted that this is a problem - and there was me thinking that theirs would be the answer to my problem!!!
 
From much trial and error I found the Shires one (and similar types) are pony proof if adjusted properly - it can take a while to work out how they're getting it off, and therefore what to adjust to stop it. Plus plaiting it into the mane helps.

Like others said, they do work it out, once they've stopped sulking. Small shetlandX sulked for a couple of days before putting some effort into working it out and soon was a bit TOO good at eating with it on.
 
Thanks for the good idea of plaiting into the mane Kallibear!! I'll try that in the morning! The Shires muzzle - do you mean the usual 'bucket' type?? I've found that this little mare tends to hook the edge on the fence and pull it off, or has a very good knack of rolling and twisting her head on the ground!!
 
Yep, the shires type are the bucket ones. Some are deeper than others, though I couldn't tell you which!

If they are able to pull if off over their nose then it's probabaly too loose. It should be fitted so it almost brushes their moustache. if she is pulling is from the front and then wear it like a necklace, get a strip of webbing and attach it to the front of the muzzle and run in up her face, through her forelock and onto the headpeice.

I also found they overheated in the bucket type so I always cut a square out of the webbing to give two nostrils holes - nowhere near big enough to get their whole muzzle through but exactly where their nostrils are.

With a bit of trial and error they can be made totally naughty-pony-proof. Fudge wore his all summer 24/7 and despite many hours of attempted ingenious removal techniques, he only managed to get it off once, before the 'facestrap' was applied.
 
Success!! For the first time, naughty mare kept her muzzle on all day!! All thanks to a simple thing of a small plait! Thanks everyone!!!
 
Mines like the shires one. And like yours sulks once it is on!! He knowos he can drink and I've poked grass up there so he knows he can eat, once I've got back to my car I usually spot him trying to eat so it is fine!

I'd rather muzzle than bring in or reduce the space hes in.
 
I agree! At least with the muzzle now firmly on she can be turned out over night which when the weather is warmer will be much nicer for her!
 
I customised my shires muzzle from buying a greenguard headcollar and using the centre strap and the extra throat lash, my horse gets it off very occasionally, I think when he rolls, otherwise keeps it on and eats fine through it, you should see him go ! chomp chomp, apparently I was told by lami trust, they reduce eating by 40% when they told me I thought no way ! I thought it was much higher than that, but if you saw my horse chomping through his I can see. His weight is fine, he has it on all year, sometimes off in the winter for couple of hours tops if I've ridden in the morning.

I've tried greenguard and it rubbed his nose and he just wasn't comfortable,soon as I put his shires one on he was happier, not that he's happy to have one on at all but you get me :-)

If the grass is too long your pony will have trouble getting any through the hole, so shorter is better and will keep him/her occupied
 
I've tried allsorts over the years, and in the end settled for a leather headcollar with a shires muzzle over the top, plaited on the forelock and cable tied to the noseband. Obviously they need watching, but if they're in a piggy paddock made of electric fencing they can';t hurt themselves anyway.
I've only ever had one who gets my muzzles off, but then he escapes from six tapes of leccy fencing too.....
 
I bought two shires muzzles, one for a mare and one for a gelding, so they could stay out during the summer:)
Although they stayed on, i had to give up on the idea and bring them into the yard, as one of the other much bigger horses decided it would be fun to pull the little gelding round the field by his muzzle:( I though he would end up badly hurt, so they are in now:(
 
I put shires masks on ours this year - one had had laminitus last winter, and the other two play fight, but kept biting rugs - now they just poke each other with the mask! I bought bright pink so I can find them easier in the field if they get them off. Naturallly its the laminitic one that can get it off! They took a week to get used to them, but now happily poke their noses in them each morning. They look so much slimmer this year. We have them on a 8 acre field of good meadow grass (about 5") as the electric fence box got stolen twice - which terrified me with the laminitic one, but she's been great! I wouldn't like to leave them on 24/7, due to the rubbing, but many people do..x
 
Mine wore his 24/7 one summer because we had stranges on the yard and the vet recommended whoever was out stayed out and who was in stayed in, luckily mine was out, well I say lucky because he is 31 with arthritis and it would have been murder for him in, it was murder him being out, i was panicing in case his muzzle came off, only happened few times. I buy proper sheepskin nosebands and cut them longways down the centre and put one inside the muzzle at the front and attach with spur straps or tied on with shoe laces. I then use remainder to attache to other areas it might rub or just keep it as a spare.
 
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