ellerslie83
Well-Known Member
I've only had my horse Jester since July, he's a 12 year old 15.3 cob that lives at home in a 2 acre field with our other chunky cob and they live out 24/7. He used to do showing and hunting. Not long after I got him, he had a bout of lameness after throwing some shoes, the vet visited and never mentioned lami, prescribed bute and told me to get a barefoot trimmer.
The trimmer suspected laminitis as he had pulses in his feet and felt he could have had mild lami for a long time which was masked by his shoes, so obviously them coming off, combined with more access to more grass made a disastrous result!
He spent time on box rest when he was really sore, but the trimmer has said that as he has slow growing feet, he needs to spend as much time moving as possible if he's happy, while eating as little as possible, so we turned him out in hoof boots in a sectioned off part of his paddock with electric fencing where we put him with his friend, only he kept jumping over it, despite his sore feet.
After a week of constantly putting him back in, we got 5 foot poles and put them a foot outside the other but he jumped those too.... so I was advised that the only option left was a grazing muzzle - BUT it's rubbing on one side of his face and on the other side the buckle has made a sore which I've had to treat with some ointment, resulting in me having to take it off till it heals which is obviously a worry that I'm not sure how to get round, as he's now obviously going to chomp away, thankfully his field is reasonably short, but as I can't make him heal faster - how do I manage him in the mean time?! I have one slightly smaller field, but the grass in it is waaay longer and lusher!
Is there a type of muzzle that isn't going to do that to him, or should I just use something to pad the metal rings/buckles of the muzzle? I chose a webbing one as I was worried about his nose getting injured.
Is it right for me to just keep him in a grazing muzzle - well, at least when there's grass, or will he always need to be on a totally different regime? He has thankfully made a very promising recovery, as he is now out all the time with his friend and is back to showing off and belting round his field without any boots on. So I obviously don't want things to slip backwards.
The trimmer suspected laminitis as he had pulses in his feet and felt he could have had mild lami for a long time which was masked by his shoes, so obviously them coming off, combined with more access to more grass made a disastrous result!
He spent time on box rest when he was really sore, but the trimmer has said that as he has slow growing feet, he needs to spend as much time moving as possible if he's happy, while eating as little as possible, so we turned him out in hoof boots in a sectioned off part of his paddock with electric fencing where we put him with his friend, only he kept jumping over it, despite his sore feet.
After a week of constantly putting him back in, we got 5 foot poles and put them a foot outside the other but he jumped those too.... so I was advised that the only option left was a grazing muzzle - BUT it's rubbing on one side of his face and on the other side the buckle has made a sore which I've had to treat with some ointment, resulting in me having to take it off till it heals which is obviously a worry that I'm not sure how to get round, as he's now obviously going to chomp away, thankfully his field is reasonably short, but as I can't make him heal faster - how do I manage him in the mean time?! I have one slightly smaller field, but the grass in it is waaay longer and lusher!
Is there a type of muzzle that isn't going to do that to him, or should I just use something to pad the metal rings/buckles of the muzzle? I chose a webbing one as I was worried about his nose getting injured.
Is it right for me to just keep him in a grazing muzzle - well, at least when there's grass, or will he always need to be on a totally different regime? He has thankfully made a very promising recovery, as he is now out all the time with his friend and is back to showing off and belting round his field without any boots on. So I obviously don't want things to slip backwards.
