Walkers taking grazing muzzle off horse in field?

bonny said:
Blimey, I am very old and fully aware of all that !! I was hardly talking about horses in the wild ! Most horses today are on livery yards, standing around doing very little and being pampered in every way.....Manufacturers will keep coming up with new horsey gadgets because everybody has to have the latest thing and recently that seems to include muzzles, that's all that I was saying !
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I'm sorry muzzles are not a new invention. They have been used throughout history for horses, donkeys and dogs.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-V...e-Decorative-repurp-Estate-Sale-/271042102113

If you read some of the old masters books, there is mention of using muzzles to prevent over-eating. It has long been understood that overweight animals can founder and die.

The newer styles are more wearable and cause less damage meaning more owners are finding them more humane to use because they don't rub... Rubbing being the major driver for new designs.
 
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Definitely what hoof_prints said!! I don't think anyone likes using them, but they are better than the alternative of a case of laminitis etc. My friends highland wears one in the summer through the day and is in at night with soaked hay, he has never had lami but is a definite candidate despite being ridden regularly (and relatively hard work), if not for the muzzle he would have even less time turned out with his friends.
 
bonny said:
Blimey, I am very old and fully aware of all that !! I was hardly talking about horses in the wild ! Most horses today are on livery yards, standing around doing very little and being pampered in every way.....Manufacturers will keep coming up with new horsey gadgets because everybody has to have the latest thing and recently that seems to include muzzles, that's all that I was saying !
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How utterly absurd.
 
Hoof_Prints said:
Fashion accessory ? seriously? last time I checked they didn't compliment my horses features :rolleyes: I hate the things but they keep my horse healthy- I think most owners who use them would agree, and much prefer to not have to use them !
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and would also prefer not to have to worry that the minute your car leaves the yard some do gooder or just the animal itself cleverly removes the dam things and stuffs its face all day . I spend many hours trying to come up with ingenious ways to keep it on short of stitching it to its head ! and also many hours stressing that if it has got it off its feet will be exploded with lami by the time i get up to yard after work anyway i'm more leg warmers as a fashion accessory for horse at minute.
 
bonny said:
Blimey, I am very old and fully aware of all that !! I was hardly talking about horses in the wild ! Most horses today are on livery yards, standing around doing very little and being pampered in every way.....Manufacturers will keep coming up with new horsey gadgets because everybody has to have the latest thing and recently that seems to include muzzles, that's all that I was saying !
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so how do you suggest we restrict the pony/horses intake of rich grass????
i *think* manufacturers came up with a muzzle from focus groups and reseach showing that it was a key, and life saving, item of kit for some people to restrict intake of grass that is not suitable for some horses and ponies....... more people have muzzles as they are beginning to realise, through education that a rich diet is not what some horses/ponies need, and that if this the only grazing there is acesses to it must be restricted to maintain a healthy animal.

i have seen 2 horses be saved from a lami death by wearing a muzzle! i dont see it as a fashion gadget!!!!
 
I would go mad if someone took my horses muzzles off! There are a lot of people walking up and down past my field everyday, and I have had to explain to a few of them what the fly masks and muzzles are.
I definitely dont think their a fashionable thing! I hate having to put them on, but they need them. I dont think owners like having to use them, but its for the horses own good!

Flaxen tail: Im sorry for your loss too, what a horrid thing to have happen :( If that happened to me and I found out who did it I think Id be in jail for a very long time :(
 
thank you dreaming is believing and rubys gold, we did find out because they came and asked where she was ,it was a grandfather and grandchildren just liked horses and took a little outing now and again to feed the horses sometimes people dont realise the harm they can cause by it,
 
We regularly find people trying to remove flymasks. All of our horses wear one as we seem to be a real midge hotspot.

Walkers tell me I am cruel and evil for blinding the horses...
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
I'm assuming that you are not being a troll tho I am wondering.......Horses evolved in mountainous arid regions with very poor sparse grazing, that is what they are designed to eat. In previous generations horses were kept either to work day in day out and so burned off any extra calories and more, plus they only lasted until they were 8-10 on average, or they were stabled all the time and fed little grass so the sugar issue didnt arise. If you look at pics of horses from the twenties and thirties they would be regarded as welfare cases now, they were lean to the point of skinny. Any that did founder ie get lami would be shot immediately. there was no artificial fertiliser to send the grass mad.

These days we keep horses in fertilised fields eating too much and doing too little. We want them to love long lives. We rug them. We feed them hard feed and shoe them even if they are natives who are not designed to cope. They get lami but we don't want to shoot them. We have the technology to help them get exercise and companionship by using muzzles so we do. Tho I saw one as a wee girl in the early seventies so they ain't new by any means.

TBH given most horses in the UK are reckoned to be overweight I would prefer to see MORE muzzles and not less in the UK.

There are many good books on horse nutrition and digestion if you wanted to learn more.
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Wonderfully and articulately put :)
 
bonny said:
Blimey, I am very old and fully aware of all that !! I was hardly talking about horses in the wild ! Most horses today are on livery yards, standing around doing very little and being pampered in every way.....Manufacturers will keep coming up with new horsey gadgets because everybody has to have the latest thing and recently that seems to include muzzles, that's all that I was saying !
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I would rather a muzzle so a fat horse could wander around (exercise) and have to really 'forage' for food (by nibbling on limited grass through the hole in the bottom, much like rooting about on very little grass in many places in the wild) and being able to be part of the herd, that being stuck in all day, bored and half-starved and alone....
 
My friend was reported to RSPCA for over rugging and blindfolding her horse in the heat of the summer!............He was wearing a Boett rug and face mask!

Same place different field, my old mare had a carsanoma growing on her eye, so she was wearing a full fly mask, this mask was removed a couple of times and founf hanging on a tree, eye was duely removed, horse was in stable for 3 weeks, turned her out with fly mask on with a water proof patch over missing eye socket to give wound some protection from the eliments, Mask was removed, as was the second one I bought and put on, both found hanging in tree side by side, clean and in good condition, hanging from same tree!!
Some people just cant help them selves! would have thought after seeing eye socket, they would have left her alone!
 
OP My two are in fine health but I still put up laminated signs on my gate saying "Please do not feed the horses as they have health conditions and you will do them harm" just in case, I wouldn't want anyone to feed them poisonous plants by accident (my lad especially would gobble it up if it was offered :rolleyes:) because they wanted to feed the nice horses some grass :(

I have told my mum off on numerous occasions for feeding the "next door" horses treats, carrots and apples over the fence and yet she persists in doing it even though I've explained the various reasons why she shouldn't :mad: I actually got a bit mad at her the other week and had a shout about how irresponsible it was to do that :o
 
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