Who has used a greenguard muzzle?

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Megibo

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Thinking of getting one of these for my fatty who has moved onto lush grazing halfway through her diet! (Yard change)

Rules state you cannot over graze the paddock, so I can't make a bare patch for her and therefore need to muzzle! Heard they are the best ones, and she just gets the bucket ones off.
 
I fully appreciate yard owners want to look after their land by not overgrazing, however if they harrow and fertilize once a year it replaces what has been lost by overgrazing so the fields do not go beyond disrepair, fertilizing does not make the grass sweeter or richer.

I feel for liverys who do have horses that need their weight managed - majority of them in this day and age and yet livery yards do not cater for this. My heart goes out to you, could you not just do more exercise on your pony/horse.
 
greenguard are by far the kindest muzzle. other muzzles are restrictive of breathing and make drinking more difficult, but ive found the greebguard allows much more freedom and the horse can still take in plenty of grass, without 'scoffing'
 
I am in same predicament of livery yard with good grazing and laminitis prone horse. Have found greenguard muzzle excellent but attached it to a fieldsafe headcollar rather than a greenguard headcollar.
Horse got the hang of it v quickly but did have to pad with sheepskin as rubbed under chin and front of nose. Think success depends
on how well it fits your horse. Some people on the yard bought the small size for ponys and they have managed to eat round the sides. I have the larger size for 15.2hh and it fits well.
 
I had one for my old boy who was laminitic.

Observations:

Only get one if you're absolutely desperate and no other solution possible to restrict grazing.

Get the proper greenguard headcollar (with the centrepiece down the front) - nothing else will do as it won't fit correctly and horse will either get it off or tie itself up in it.

Following point above, make sure you've got it on the right way round and that it fits correctly.

Monitor your horse regularly and don't keep it on ALL the time, also watch him to see if its rubbing - my old boy had rubbed his lips raw from eating with it, so do watch this.

Don't buy any other grazing muzzle, as someone else has said, the rest of them are awful things, either hot & heavy & restrict breathing, or horse hates them and gets the thing off, or they simply aren't able to get anything through it and stress because they're simply hungry, and go around literally banging their heads on gates and stuff to get it off.

Personally I'd look at other solutions first and regard ANY grazing muzzle as a very last resort. Originally I understand they were only designed for laminitics who had to be restricted, and were used under veterinary supervision??? Says it all I think.
 
I use one. My boy got laminitis, luckily I caught it very early and now he wears his green guard 24/7. I got the head collar too. He much prefers it to a bucket muzzle which he hated. I take it off for an hour a day. It rubbed very slightly and I put cream on. But after 2 days his skin toughened up. It's either wear this or stand in on his own where he can't see any other horses in a stable which gets incredibly hot. He seems happy wearing it and his weight has remained good. He is not stressed wearing it and manages to graze. When I tried the bucket muzzle he would run off the minute he saw it. He is happy to let me put the green guard on. I'm very happy with it.
 
Against the grain, but I didn't like them and neither did Henry. I wanted to try one as my previous yard couldn't make a fatty paddock for me and I had to either muzzle 24 hours of stable O/N and 12hrs with muzzle, so I wanted something 'kinder' than the bucket style, even though both ponies wore them with no problems (threaded a headcollar through Henry's and Chloe's strap went through the SI Hoody ear holes).

Henry got the pony size one off in minutes (that was in the GG headcollar). Was advised to try the bigger one, as the pony ones are a different design and flippin useless! So, put the bigger one on and he literally starved himself for the entire time he was turned out in it. Nobody saw him eat. You never saw a more miserable looking pony! Put the Best Friend one back on and BAM! Down went the head. Looking at the way they rubbed on other horses on the yard (everybody had them, hence me being able to try them, thank God!), I think it must have hurt his chin enough that he went on hunger strike.

So, I went back to the other muzzle and gave him a break twice a day. My ponies were the only ones NOT having sudocrem applied to them every morning and night! Fur rubbed off, but no sores. Thankfully, I moved yards and I'm able to manage my own paddocks, so no muzzles at the moment. Yessss!!

Oh, forgot to mention that I did make the hole slightly bigger in the Best Friend muzzle. Chloe's rubber bits split at the front this year, too, but it never came off, so I bet you could remove these for more breathability if you wanted.
 
Fransurrey said:
Against the grain, but I didn't like them and neither did Henry. I wanted to try one as my previous yard couldn't make a fatty paddock for me and I had to either muzzle 24 hours of stable O/N and 12hrs with muzzle, so I wanted something 'kinder' than the bucket style, even though both ponies wore them with no problems (threaded a headcollar through Henry's and Chloe's strap went through the SI Hoody ear holes).

Henry got the pony size one off in minutes (that was in the GG headcollar). Was advised to try the bigger one, as the pony ones are a different design and flippin useless! So, put the bigger one on and he literally starved himself for the entire time he was turned out in it. Nobody saw him eat. You never saw a more miserable looking pony! Put the Best Friend one back on and BAM! Down went the head. Looking at the way they rubbed on other horses on the yard (everybody had them, hence me being able to try them, thank God!), I think it must have hurt his chin enough that he went on hunger strike.

So, I went back to the other muzzle and gave him a break twice a day. My ponies were the only ones NOT having sudocrem applied to them every morning and night! Fur rubbed off, but no sores. Thankfully, I moved yards and I'm able to manage my own paddocks, so no muzzles at the moment. Yessss!!
Click to expand...

So you would go for a best friend muzzle?? Am being dim!

This is her at the moment and you can see the grass/how huge she is hence my desperation to do something to stop her weight in its tracks...! And yes I know she is being fed in the picture, but she literally gets a pittance of chaff for her joint supplement.
fatponyfat_zps405f3cce.jpg

My other option is to split the field up and let her follow the baby horse around every couple of days so the grass is already mostly eaten down but that way she isn't as restricted and won't help the weight problem much.
 
Bejeezus! That's a lot of grass! As I say, I'm against the grain going off this thread, but Henry certainly seemed to prefer the bucket style. She is looking, er, well, so can see your concern ;) . Is there anyone on the yard who is willing to let you try their GG? I was lucky in that respect. If you're happy to buy both, then GGs always sell on (although you'll make a loss, of course!), or you can alternate between the two. One for day, one for night. I tried the full sized GG for two days running, stabling overnight, then gave up on it. I really thought it would be the kinder option, as he could yawn in the GG, but nope!
 
No no one else muzzles!
We live 45 odd minutes away from the yard so can't go up twice a day to bring in either etc. And services for that is £2.50 which is expensive done every day.

Perhaps I could alternate her so she spends a day on an eaten down paddock and then is muzzled in another paddock for a couple days, then back to eaten down paddock?
Why oh why do I have to have a good doer!
 
My cushings horse is always in hus green guard to reduce risk of laminitis never had any problems with it agree you need the proper headcollar he has never managed to get it off yet!
 
Oh dear. Maybe put out a request on your local Bookface page, asking if anyone has one you can try? They often come up secondhand. Would they really charge that much just for changing over a muzzle? I can understand for bringing in, but muzzle change can be done on the way out to poo pick or get another horse. Is the YO/M the negotiating type? Maybe you could pay £1 a day, or offer to do a job.
 
what do you mean charge to change muzzle??

Hopefully have a moped soon so costs in petrol shouldn't be too bad to get up the yard so could afford to go twice a day. For the moment I think I'll ask them to bring her in, but have to wait until we can buy hay first (we moved onto the yard Monday so still getting settled).
Once I'm in a position to I think I'll bring her in during the day with a small net of soaked hay and turf her out at night muzzled. Plus the bonus of being able to take myself up there means I can work her more!
 
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