Grazing muzzle

[Eelseelseels]

I have a real porker of a native pony. He's been in a paddock with almost no grass but has got really fat so I've bought a muzzle for him and today was his first day out with it. It's a dinky muzzle, so has the webbing at the bottom. He's in a new paddock which has a mix of very long and short grass and he spent the day head down in the long grass. Just put him to bed and he's only done one poo all day (out for 10 hours). Any thoughts on this? He's back in his stable with hay for the night, but the muzzle will go on again at 7. A.m.

[countingto10]

They can take a couple of days to get the hang of it. My mare spent the first days standing at the fence not even putting her had down, now she goes off and grazes quite happily. I've got a Greenguard muzzle btw.

[Eelseelseels]

An that's good to hear. It was a toss up between the green guard and the dinky as I felt the bucket muzzles were a step too far for him. Have you found your made has lost weight, or remained the same?

[countingto10]

I have been using the muzzle for the last four weeks and she has definitely lost weight steadily, I have also been able to exercise her again so we are now managing up to an hours hacking in walk 3/4 a week now (has had bad arthritis). Vet was out today and was pleased with how she looked as she weighed 536kg 8 weeks ago (weighed at vets) and she's only 14.2! It has rubbed her a bit so lots of Vaseline and DIY padding. She is turned out about 8 hours a day muzzled and then in with soaked hay. We have a lot of grass ATM and she was ballooning so no option but to muzzle as she needs to be kept moving and we don't have a bare paddock. I wished I had done it sooner .

[Eelseelseels]

Oh excellent news. My boy is 13.2 and weigh tapes (not accurate I know) 420 this week. I expect he is in reality a fair bit heavier, but at his thinnest on the weigh tape (still couldnt see his ribs) and in mid winter he was 360. I'll stick with it. Thank you for the inspiration on this one. There is FAR too much grass this year!

[KiwiJude]

My porker wore a muzzle whenever he was out on grass and was yarded at night in a decent sized yard (about 50 m2) with soaked hay in a small holed haynet so he could have time out of the muzzle. The muzzle definitely made a difference to his weight and he loved being able to out in the bigger paddocks as he is naturally active in the paddock, always wanting to know what was going on everywhere and had his favourite snooze/munch spots at different times during the day.

Make sure you wash/scrub the muzzle every day, in warm weather sometimes I would clean it twice a day as it doesn't take long for them to get stinky/not very pleasant. Wearing a muzzle meant my boy could be out and about with the other horses. I always slipped him a bit of carrot or apple through the bottom of the muzzle once he had it on and he was always happy to put his face into the muzzle every morning. Those bucket muzzles are vile.

[Eelseelseels]

Muzzle update. I brought him in last night and he was quite agitated. Had ridden at nine and put him out in the big field with his muzzle for eight hours with the muzzle on (mix of long and short grass). There was only one poo in the field. His muzzle was quite sore and his jaw seemed stiff. He's got a pink face (few spot Appaloosa), so I slathered him with sudocrem. Have put him back in his fatty paddock with no muzzle today to give his face a rest and will try again tomorrow.

[frostyfingers]

How many other horses is he out with? If it's not too many could you tape off a smallish area of the field, stick them all (or just one other) on it until it's grazed down a bit, then remove the others and leave him with the bald patch? I do this with my field although I only have one other horse and then gradually increase the size of the bald patch. Another alternative which is hard work is to mow a patch down - or a combination of grazing it down then mowing. As it's quite dry the grass isn't growing quite as fast so it should become bare quite quickly.

My fatty is in a taped off area with some trees along the hedge and lives there 20ish hours a day with 3-4 hours on the slightly less bald bit that dhorse so they can have a run about a bit. He gets a bit of Safe & Sound twice daily to keep him ticking over and although "prosperous" he's not grossly fat at all. A muzzle never worked on him, he would just rub it off no matter how it was fixed and I gave up in the end.

[Eelseelseels]

Thank you for this. He is on individual turnout (it's my yard so I can put him wherever I fancy and we are very much under stocked). The paddock that he got fat in is practically bare already. It is about a third of an acre and has been grazed continually since before Christmas. The other tb type horses are in large paddocks with good grazing. He is so huge that I'm scared he will get laminitis any day. The mowing is a good idea, but we don't have a mower that collects?

[frostyfingers]

Will he lunge? That uses lots of energy in a shorter space of time (mine hates it, he keeps turning in to me in a "join up" sort of way!). It does work but isn't much fun for either of you. Dpony is on a tiny area, nothing like 1/3rd acre - since yours seems to be getting quite a lot of exercise perhaps you could reduce his patch - it's amazing how much the grass grows, even now. I'll take a piccy when I go out in a moment and show you. Where we were last year there was a footpath bordering the field and I got quite a few comments on how cruel I was being - it drove me mad.

I find it so hard in the summer, winter is much easier.

[Eelseelseels]

No he won't lunge. I'm a big monty Roberts fan and have tried to send him away, and to lunge him but he sticks like glue to me. I think he's secretly a fat Labrador! I will get the fence posts out and give him a smaller area to graze.

[frostyfingers]

Right here are a couple of not very good photos - the sun is going down and it's hard to show it. First pic is of the starvation patch, 2nd is of the not so starvation patch that big horse (16.2 TB) lives on. He too has a tendency to lardiness and has recently had a chest infection so isn't allowed to get too fat - this is the patch that dpony has 3 hours or so on daily. Dpony is 12.2 part Section B, part who knows what.

The sheep share the bald patch and the bulk of the 5 acre field much to dhorse's disgust - he'd like to be on the lovely thick stuff but isn't brave enough to go through the non electric fence. Dpony on the other hand will shimmy under at the first opportunity if it isn't on!

[Eelseelseels]

Ah brilliant! From a distant your little white horse looks identical to mine! Will definitely get the tape and posts put first thing

[bronya]

Check his teeth - does he have an overbite? Is the hole actually in the right place for him to eat? My mare has a significant overbite and I have to cut the hold lower with a stanley knife so she can eat.

[Eelseelseels]

It's a dinky muzzle he has, so it has webbing at the bottom and he has to eat from the sides, if that makes sense, so no actual hole, just side openings. He's also teething at the moment.

[ADishBestEatenCold]

I'm guessing from what you say "Just put him to bed" that he is part stabled and part turnout, and am also assuming that he is in the stable at night "I brought him in last night and he was quite agitated".

Could you reverse this? You are maybe already aware of this (in which case, I am sorry for re-hashing), but there are more sugars in grass during daylight hours (during photosynthesis) and less during the night, when sugar sources are generally depleted.

It really does help if you can bring in during the day instead of at night and restrict turnout (in a grass controlled paddock) to a much shorter period between dusk and dawn.

[Eelseelseels]

Thank you all for your advice on this. An update on the fat boy. He couldn't get on with the muzzle, and we needed to move him to another paddock. I ordered 40 new electric poles and a load of tape and we made a paddock paradise for him. We mowed the grass down really short and raked it up, and when it was really low let him into his new track system. He really seems to like it. He's moving more and the weight is already coming off.

[frostyfingers]

That's good news - the grass will also have slowed down a bit so hopefully he'll be trim and raring to go in no time!