Grazing Muzzles: It seems they may work as we hoped

[wingnut]

I rec'd this in my email this afternoon. I believe that 5 of my six horses would benefit from a grazing muzzle, although I admit to feeling a bit guilty when I do use them. I currently only have two muzzles available. I had wondered if the use of them had enough benefit to warrant getting more muzzles so that the rest could be wearing them at the same time (all but the hardkeeper). This article leads me to believe that this could be a good plan for my horses.

Caveat: I only uses these on days I can be home for the duration of the time they're in the pasture. I like being able to use the muzzles because the horses move a lot more when in the pasture grazing (vs. the dry lot with hay) and they move even more with the muzzle on. When they are in the pasture with muzzles on, I keep a very close eye on them, going so far as to pull out the binoculars to verify they are still appropriately in place on their faces. All have velcro breakaways that work very well. So much so, that we put up a tape style electric fence on our regular mesh fencing because the one horse learned very quickly how to get the halter clipped/hung up on the mesh and jerk until the velcro gave way. I timed her a couple different times and found she could easily have it off within 3 minutes flat!

I think I'll be adding a couple more of these to my "need to purchase sooner rather than later!" list

Grazing Muzzle study

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

The trick is definitely to get them to keep them on!

Interesting article, amazing how much they can eat without a muzzle!

 

[Sue_C.]

A good buddy of mine uses them religiously with her two mini mares, and those mares are terrifically obese; I am thinking they aren't (somehow??) working for them.