Managing EMS - grazing muzzles?

[soloequestrian]

I have a horse coming to join my herd in a month or so who is borderline EMS - he's not been tested but has all the characteristics and has had low grade laminitis. The three horses he is joining are lighter and although I do restrict their grazing to some extent it's definitely a bit much for a very good doer. I've read that people have had success with grazing muzzles - are there any recommendations for brands of these? Any other tips to help? Ideally he will be out 24/7 as the others are.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Flexible Filly. Livery horses in the next door field to mine all wear them and are out 24/7. Hideously expensive but they seem to be worth the money.

 

[SEL]

Turning into my specialist subject

The flexible filly is a nice soft plastic and I've got it attached to a field safe headcollar as it needs to be on virtually 24:7 at the moment. They can get clever and work out how to eat out the side though - baling twine has been my saviour there.

Friend found they weren't robust enough for her natives and has them in the Shires bucket muzzles which are much cheaper but a bit claustrophobic. She also uses the Dinky ones.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I used a Tough 1 Easy Breathe with the headpiece plaited into the forelock. There is a similar version called the Ultimate, but it came almost up to my cob's eyes and didn't have the same fit.

 

[pistolpete]

Flexible filly still allowed my boy to damage his incisors. Something to watch out for.

 

[MissTyc]

I have two working horses that live in greenguard and/or flexible filly (whichever one happens to be not broken/lost at any given time). They wear them all the time and have a large field with lots of grass, giving them the ability to live with the herd and gallop and play and have a normal life without crossing the healthy weight line! Muzzles do damage the incisors, but my dentist says she's seen similar damage from horses grazing very short grass as well and told me not to overthink it. Given the high quality dentistry available for horses these days, I have followed that advice. They need to be restricted in food, but not in lifestyle, so this works for me.

 

[holeymoley]

Flexible Filly has been my horse's life line to allow grazing for the last 5 or so years. I have replaced twice. Purely as the first one I cut the hole slightly larger, so he wears this in Winter. I needed a normal sized hole for Spring/Summer/Autumn grazing. It ripped ever so slightly. Bought another one, it's now ripped too I don't think the newer ones are as robust as the original ones. But alas, he needs it and wears it every day so when you think of the expense like that, it's not much really.

Has any one tried the lite bite ones? Similar to flexible filly but more square.

 

[ycbm]

Or these, designed with a long standing forum user.

https://www.facebook.com/Doncasterplastics/posts/811496697784296

 

[HopOnTrot]

Flexible filly/thin line
Dinky
Shire deluxe
Those are the best and if out 24/7 rotate the three to stop rubs, I turn out 19-20 hours and in 4-5 so just stick with the flexible fully. I section up my grazing and move the fence whilst keeping an eye on pulses. When they come in the EMS on gets soaked hay and the “normal” native gets haylage for her asthma!

 

[Cobwithattitudebackagain]

My horse (low adiponectin levels) has a Thin line muzzle on - she is a mistress of side eating in it. I have alleviated this to a certain extent with a leather shoelace, lacing two petals up a little. I did not buy the headcollar with the muzzle. Perhaps I should have done but it was a big outlay for both. She did rub her bottom lip at first but I have padded fieldsafe headcollar with vet wrap. However, she does look a bit battered as she has clunked her head in the stable (in during day) and a rub in her hair on her nose from the headcollar. HOWEVER, she has lost weight and i would recommend them . Do like the look of the Breezy Grazer though!

 

[Surbie]

My horse hasn't been tested for EMS, but is a very good doer so gets a similar diet. I have mine in a Flexible Filly - now in its second year, so far still looking pretty new. He's out all day/night for 4 days a week in it and there is minimal rubbing from the muzzle. His weight hasn't exploded this year and I might even get a bit more weight loss later on if we get a summer. It was hard to get the fit right though.

A friend has doubled up on the FF muzzle to stop her Clydie eating out of the sides. Clunky but effective. Buying muzzles for horses with draft sized heads can be challenging because you're on the biggest headcollar and muzzle size as it is.

Another friend has clever Welsh A's. One worked out that if he stood on the side of the muzzle and jerked his head up, either the ziptie or the muzzle would give. That got expensive fast.

 

[soloequestrian]

Thanks all, this gives me confidence that I can manage his weight without having to separate him from the rest of the herd.

 

[SO1]

Bert is out with 4 sports TB horse types all over 16h who need a lot of grass and he is a 13.2 good doer NF. He is in a flexible filly. I bought the head collar as well as easier to stop side eating. I also bought the thinline padding to stop rubbing around the nose.

It has been an expensive journey as I have spent over £500 on muzzles to get it right for Bert. He was in Homey's flexible filly with a leather headcollar but he was eating out the sides. I thought it was too big so bought the pony sized one and couldn't get that to fit so bought the special head collar and tried with Homey's one again and that stopped the side eating but it was rubbing so bought the thinline padding. That split so bought another one ended up making the hole too big and he got too fat so got another one. Also during this time I also bought a have a heart best friend muzzle too.

The grass has grown like crazy and we have so much of it also there is clover.

So now I have four muzzles. The best friend I am going to try and sell on ebay as not used.

The one with the too big hole I will keep as a spare. The pony size one I couldn't get to fit I cut the hole bigger to match the 3cm size the newer style have a 2cm rather than a 3cm and I might try and sell it as well though not sure if people will want one with a bigger hole.

Bert goes out for about 8 hours but that is enough on good grass for him to get overweight within 6 weeks he went from perfect weight to overweight when I made the hole too big. He is in at night on soaked hay.

We have so much grass I expect that he will need to be muzzled until winter. We have rested fields as well.

Rested fields are looking crazy with grass for the winter but the grass in the normal fields is also getting long as well and with the grass seedling. The bigger horses are not eating it down quickly.

This is what winter fields are looking like. We are one of the few yards in the area that alway have turnout whatever the weather in the winter as we have so much grass. When most yards were restricting turnout over a wet winter we were still having normal turnout.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Whatever you use, please try to leave breathing holes over the nostrils. Otherwise it is the same as us wearing our facemasks over the nose. Also if the grazing slot is big enough for the horse's lips to touch grass, he/she is more likely to tolerate it.