Muzzle help please!

tankgirl1

tankgirl1

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Grazing muzzles, Boyo is fine with having his put on, my question is do you just chuck them out in the field and leave them to figure it out?

His mum tried him with it last spring, but took it off after an hour.... This is the same Welsh D that went on hunger strike when we started soaking his hay, 24 hours later he was eating the soaked hay no problem!

Do they just figure it out when their tummy starts a rumbling?

A proper good builders cup of tea on offer! Ta for reading :)
 
Not sure but will be following with interest as I have a muzzle I need to use!! I spoke to the original owner of mine and they had used one on her before. For the first 24 hrs she was unhappy but got used to it eventually.

If I don't use it then she will balloon!!

T x
 
If you put it on and take him to a patch of grass see what he does, my mare just got on with it but the kids first pony refused to move. she made no attempt to graze-I kept trying for months putting it onfor short periods of time/feeding her bits of grass through the hole/trying to get her to lower her head to have the grass/in the end I put it on and went and sat in the corner of the field and read a book for 4 hrs-she did not move a muscle and I mean not a muscle, she did not rest a leg/swish her tail or anything-it was like putting the muzzle on paralysed her so I gave up.

one thing is the grass must be long enough but not too long for them to get hold of fairly easily through the muzzle to start with, you cannot use them on really short grass
 
To start with for tiny fuzzy, I cut a bigger hole in the bottom of her dinky ponies one.
Then I shoved lovely forbidden grass up the hole and also the odd polo, she cottoned on to the idea after half an hour or so of wandering round the field looking cross.
Then I got a 2nd muzzle & didn't cut the bottom any bigger, cue an even more cross pony.
Roll on to this spring & she knows it has to go on if she is to join CF in the field in the daytime.
I replace the muzzle annually - the old one does the start of each summer & then becomes the 'spare' if we have prolonged wet weather, or when I take the other home to wash it (weekly).

OP, good luck, patience is the virtue with it. Also try leaving it on for 4 or 5 hours max to start with.
 
I think if you take it off too quickly they learn that you are going to take it off.
I started putting bits of grass through the hole and then left two grumpy looking ponies to get on with it, after a few hours they were perfectly happy to eat with it on
 
I use a Greenguard & have done for years with one of mine. He walks past a green door & puts weight on! When I introduced it to him & put it on, spent some time adjusting it to fit right & then left him with it. Too many people are too quick to take the mask off saying that their horse doesn't like it or he can't eat through it etc. Leave them with the mask on, in a paddock of grass & eventually they'll get on with it. They won't starve themselves.
 
I just put it on and put him out in it - he ran around for a bit with his head in the air but he soon figured out how to use it. Then wore it for the rest of summer and obviously was getting grass as he didn't loose much weight - just lost a bit of his pot belly.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
To start with for tiny fuzzy, I cut a bigger hole in the bottom of her dinky ponies one.
Then I shoved lovely forbidden grass up the hole and also the odd polo, she cottoned on to the idea after half an hour or so of wandering round the field looking cross.
Then I got a 2nd muzzle & didn't cut the bottom any bigger, cue an even more cross pony.
Roll on to this spring & she knows it has to go on if she is to join CF in the field in the daytime.
I replace the muzzle annually - the old one does the start of each summer & then becomes the 'spare' if we have prolonged wet weather, or when I take the other home to wash it (weekly).

OP, good luck, patience is the virtue with it. Also try leaving it on for 4 or 5 hours max to start with.
Click to expand...

I have just done this with F's dinky ponies one - cut a square slot in the bottom, - he just wasn't trying hard enough otherwise (spent hour and half not really eating earlier in day!) once he had tried to eat it from the inside... did have to use some higher value treats in the grass to encourage him to snuffle around a bit more. I have left him to it today but as they only go out until 2pm atm he won't starve :p and I'd rather that than him stuffing as they have just moved onto fresh fields.

I have to say even I was struggling to work out how he was going to get any through the dinky ponies one as it stood - and sweeping your nose rapidly sideways didn't see to work!
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
I use a Greenguard & have done for years with one of mine. He walks past a green door & puts weight on! When I introduced it to him & put it on, spent some time adjusting it to fit right & then left him with it. Too many people are too quick to take the mask off saying that their horse doesn't like it or he can't eat through it etc. Leave them with the mask on, in a paddock of grass & eventually they'll get on with it. They won't starve themselves.
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is what I was hoping for!!
 
Cutting holes in the muzzles makes the thing useless so I can't understand why anyone would do that. The Dinky muzzles are the only ones I use as all the others that I've tried have rubbed my boy's muzzle raw. The worst culprit was the GreenGuard muzzle - I gave it away!
 
flojo said:
Cutting holes in the muzzles makes the thing useless so I can't understand why anyone would do that. The Dinky muzzles are the only ones I use as all the others that I've tried have rubbed my boy's muzzle raw. The worst culprit was the GreenGuard muzzle - I gave it away!
Click to expand...

For a pony that was distressed, I had to make a decision - so I cut a V into one of the existing holes on the 1st Dinky muzzle - and had success. Have not had to do it with any replacement ones whatsoever.
Means to an end for me & it worked :)
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
I use a Greenguard & have done for years with one of mine. He walks past a green door & puts weight on! When I introduced it to him & put it on, spent some time adjusting it to fit right & then left him with it. Too many people are too quick to take the mask off saying that their horse doesn't like it or he can't eat through it etc. Leave them with the mask on, in a paddock of grass & eventually they'll get on with it. They won't starve themselves.
Click to expand...

some will, that and cause ulcers through stress and lack of eating!
although I do agree the number is very small
 
Maybe it depends where the holes end up on the dinky muzzles as even I couldn't see how F was going to get anything. - I have cut a small rectangle in the bit directly under his lips and he is now only getting a few blades of grass at a time - and still getting a bit frustrated with it. - I know this to be the case because he gets grass stuck in gap in his front teeth and it was stuffed without muzzle on saturday and clean as a whistle yesterday so I am happy it is restricting him enough (essentially so he doesn't stuff) for what he needs so it certainly hasn't made it useless flojo.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
For a pony that was distressed, I had to make a decision - so I cut a V into one of the existing holes on the 1st Dinky muzzle - and had success. Have not had to do it with any replacement ones whatsoever.
Means to an end for me & it worked :)
Click to expand...

Re-read your post and realised why you did it ;)

A few people on our yard HAVE made the holes in muzzles larger so the ponies can get more grass - which defeats the object!
 
flojo said:
Re-read your post and realised why you did it ;)

A few people on our yard HAVE made the holes in muzzles larger so the ponies can get more grass - which defeats the object!
Click to expand...

Are the dinky muzzles better? just had a look and they are reasonably priced... Boyo is in a shires one and didn't get on very well with it today, don't think he had eaten at all although he was doing lots of swooshing his muzzle over the grass. Which bit did you cut the V into on the dinky TFF?
 
tankgirl1 said:
Are the dinky muzzles better? just had a look and they are reasonably priced... Boyo is in a shires one and didn't get on very well with it today, don't think he had eaten at all although he was doing lots of swooshing his muzzle over the grass. Which bit did you cut the V into on the dinky TFF?
Click to expand...

did you try feeding him through the bottom before leaving him to get on with it himself?
 
tankgirl1 said:
Are the dinky muzzles better? just had a look and they are reasonably priced... Boyo is in a shires one and didn't get on very well with it today, don't think he had eaten at all although he was doing lots of swooshing his muzzle over the grass. Which bit did you cut the V into on the dinky TFF?
Click to expand...

They suit TF - and I also have 'in stock' the cob & FS versions for larger thugs ;)
Only 1 of the bottom holes did I cut - just a V in the webbing on 1 side at the bottom - with the point of the V towards the front, prob only just over half an inch in total :)
 
tankgirl1 said:
Grazing muzzles, Boyo is fine with having his put on, my question is do you just chuck them out in the field and leave them to figure it out?

His mum tried him with it last spring, but took it off after an hour.... This is the same Welsh D that went on hunger strike when we started soaking his hay, 24 hours later he was eating the soaked hay no problem!

Do they just figure it out when their tummy starts a rumbling?

A proper good builders cup of tea on offer! Ta for reading :)
Click to expand...

I put my pony in a corral of electric fencing so there is no solid object for her to rub it off on. I just put a heacollar on top in the early days and watched her.

I know use a dinky muzzle but sadly it only last a few months and they can chewed the muzzle and the hole gets bigger.


This year we are trying strip grazing with both ponies
 
I got the dinky ponies one as they seem to have a good rep for not rubbing (sensitive chap really!) and they are a cheap enough that if I decided to do some modifications/he wears it out I don't mind replacing it. Last couple of years we have had a track system up which was ideal but am now at livery and he is in the field with a TB who needs the grass.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
They suit TF - and I also have 'in stock' the cob & FS versions for larger thugs ;)
Only 1 of the bottom holes did I cut - just a V in the webbing on 1 side at the bottom - with the point of the V towards the front, prob only just over half an inch in total :)
Click to expand...

Hmm might try a dinky then as he is just gobbling up the spring grass without his shires one on, not eating at all with it on, can't really strip graze easily, and he is lami prone!!
 
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