Grazing Muzzle friend or foe? It does not matter if you own a horse that is an easy keeper or trying help a horse prone to laminitis, a grazing muzzle can be a crucial horse owner’s friend if used correctly. For a horse owner not many item of equipment are as inexpensive or easy to use as a grazing muzzle. Some horse owners love them & some hate them, but if used correctly they can help you in assisting your horse or pony in reducing their risk of laminitis from overindulgence on pasture/grasses or at least help to keep your horse or pony healthier by limiting his caloric intake. Research states a well fitted grazing muzzle can reduce the pasture intake between 50- 80%. A horse can normally eat 2.5% of their BWT in forage per day. Ok, but how much is this? If your horse was on good pasture & weighed 600kg it would mean an intake of 15kg per day. But not all horses where designed to eat that amount of pasture e.g., the mighty mini Shetland. If a horse is out on pasture 24/7 they will be approx. eating between 16-18hr of the 24hr with the other 4 hrs. will be spent in total sleep & the other 2 hrs. dozing or messing about with mates in the paddock. Oh fact did you know a horse will eat 60-80% during day light hours & only 50% of the time during night Most horses sleep/rest between 1am - 4am. For example on average pasture the intake will be approx. 300g of Dry Matter intake per hr. so if you multiply 0.3kg x 16 hr. = 4.8kg. To make life simple I would use ~5kg of DM intake of pasture per day. Or on good pasture 0.6kg per hr. DM x 16 hr. = 10kg DM intake per day. When a pony or horse wears one of “Hannibal Lector” masks they can breathe & drink as normal but they can only consume blades of grass that are long enough to poke through the muzzles holes /gasps in the rubber mesh. But be warned some of those ponies that are a little more resourceful will push & poke & scrub grass into the muzzle! An advantage of muzzles are they allow a horse all the benefits of turnout from exercise in the paddock, to the socialization & being out in the fresh air & all this happens without the risks of consuming too much nutrient-rich grass. For some horses or Mighty Mini Shetlands grazing can be further limited by covering the bottom hole with a layer of shade cloth fixed with cooking string with a hole made in it. Why do I use cooking string as it easily brakes so if a horse gets hooked up in some daring attempt to get the muzzle of the string will break. Any Shetland or horse not requiring as much grass as available to them will profit from a muzzle. But muzzles can be an especially important tool in managing horses with IR (insulin resistance), Cushings syndrome (PPID), EMS or those equines that are more susceptible to laminitis, particularly when grass is lush in early spring & during the autumn flush too. In fact experience has taught me from owning a mighty mini Shetland grazing muzzles are of use well beyond springtime. I used to think only spring new grass was going to be a problem so I would put Bear (might mini Shetland) grazing muzzle on when the new grass started to appear in the paddock , then take the grazing muzzle off when the grass started to dry off enough for the growth to slow down or stop. But research shows it is not easy to predict when the grasses are there riskiest. In Western Australia it might be better to pay more attention on the climate conditions & temperature fluctuations than to the calendar month. I have found you cannot just rely on the calendar alone. It is advisable to make the call based on the current conditions as the spring grass has started to come through earlier this year. Plus when the nights drop below 4*C & days are still warm = grass under stress & growing conditions. It is a good idea to leave off the grazing muzzles when a new horse is introduced to your herd and in other situations when the social order may be temporarily disrupted, as you would be taking away on of your horse’s defenses if they got into a difficult situation. To stay in place a muzzle needs to be comfortable nearly snug, but if its too tight it can rub, esp. hot weather. Nonetheless an enterprising horse may try to get rid of even a well-fitted muzzle. Bear has been seen rolling on the ground to itch the grazing muzzle over his head & using his hoof to pull the Velcro apart! Other horses have learnt how to hook muzzles on fences and pull back to break them. It is a great idea to use ‘vet wrap’ on the hook to stop this from happening & also it will help with the rubbing problem too on the sides of the muzzle too. I have even got to the stage with Bear that I have plated his forelock / mane into the head piece of the grazing muzzle and that solved the problem for now! You have to be creative about securing the muzzles, but you still need to make that they still have a breakaway feature for safety. As with any new equipment the fit is important For confirmed muzzle removers at risk of laminitis, IR or EMS, PPID a dry paddock area or as people call those a “Jenny Craig” Paddock with no grass at all may be the only safe turnout option. Then you must have hay on offer for the horse or mini Shetland to eat at all times. To reduce the sugars in the meadow grass hay it is a great idea to soak the hay for 30 min in warm water or an hour to leach out approx. 30% the NSC% from the hay.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 06:42:54 +0000
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