grazing muzzles

farrierswife

farrierswife

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Just wondering owners who muzzle their horses in the spring/summer when (if you are going to) you are going to brave letting them out without a muzzle?
 
Mines muzzled through the srping and summer. Usually she is muzzled during the day and I take it off at night. She doesn't wear it in the winter at all though. She has just been introduced to her new winter field and the grass is very long, but as she has lost her tummy, I left her too it. Although she was out for 3 hours one day, 4 the next and 6 yesterday.
 
I'm weaning my boy out of his so he goes out with it on and at first I took it off 1 hour before coming in and the next day 1.5hrs and so on. We are now at the stage of it coming off at lunchtime. Even if I've got it off completely I will still pop it back on to turn out if its been frosty :)
 
my mare is muzzled (greenguard variety) all year round (daytime only as she is in at night) as we have very good grazing all year round and she is prone to colic if she has too much grass :(
 
Every time we rotate field (around every 8 weeks) mine gets either muzzled or put in a smaller paddock for about a week until teh others have taken the worst off the grass.

Having said that I have let her go on a new field this week without as there isn't that much grass and she only had about 6 hours on it on Sunday and the same again yesterday. I will be keeping a very close eye out though!
 
Mine has a shries muzzle, wears it all year round I'm too scared to leave it off. Occassionally through the winter I might take it off for an hour before I bring him in. I might check with my vet to see if he can have it off for longer, it depends on the quality of the grass in his field. There's only him in a small paddock, so it tends to have grass in it all year round, less length in the winter granted but I'm just too scared to leave it off :-(
 
On our yard it depends on the grass. At the moment, our grass is too short to get enough through for the poor doer lami to be out for long in a muzzle, but too abundant to go out for long without. They'll move to the winter field soon, which has been left since a late hay cut in early Sept, at which point he'll be out all night in one then in eating hay all day to keep the weight on. Not mine, but owner had him years & is very good at getting the balance right for him.
 
Coblet didn't have one in summer as had a full slip and was in work but the winter field was rather long and lush and with only the TB and her I got her a muzzle as she was in a less lush field for a week without one and she pretty much doubled in size :o
 
Mine will wear hers all year round now as we are at a yard with an abundance of grass. She honestly doesn't mind. If the grass gets too short that she can't be genuinely satisfied (but not absolutely stuffing her face) then she let's me know by simply taking it off :) when she keeps it on which is 99.9 % of the time I know she is getting enough but not too much which keeps us both happy. For her to have free access she would need to be worked for about three hours a day and I just can't provide that amount of exercise!
 
We have masses of grass (used to be a dairy farm) which can be a nightmare - we've just moved onto the winter fields, and the grass is less lush so the 'big guys' manage fine, but the shetlands and welsh cob are muzzled when they're out the whole time, neither resent having them on and don't eat much of their hay at night so they must still be getting enough to eat! They can have them off when the snow comes and they have to dig for food!!
 
Mine have just been let out on to the previously hay fields, which now has very lush grass in! Having been in a bare paddock for a while (thanks to one horses' escaping habits and having to secure fencing everywhere else) . They are wearing muzzles until the grass gets trampled and eaten down a bit
 
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