Posts Tagged ‘horse
How to Choose the Best Grazing Muzzle for Your Pony
A common saying among those that own Chincoteague Ponies is that they can get fat on a cement slab. Which pretty much means they can get overweight just by looking at grass!
It’s true that they are easy keepers, but they also love to eat in excess. Too much grass is not a good thing, and can cause laminitis among other issues.
Over the years of owning Chincoteauge ponies we’ve tried many methods to manage their weight during the months when the grass is very lush (which in our area can even be early spring and late into the fall). I thought it would be helpful to compile a list of all the different types of muzzles, along with their pros and cons, that we have tried over the years to help limit their grass intake. So remember these tips the next time you visit a store selling western tack.
Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post, but it does contain some affiliate links. We are not biased towards any particular muzzles, and only chose the ones that work best for our ponies.
Pros:
- inexpensive
- comes with an attached halter with velcro breakaway
- mid-height sides for the ponies that like to escape
- will stay on with added attachments for ponies that easily get out of muzzles
- “just” fits inside of Nelson automatic waterers
- several sizes available
Cons:
- causes rubs with extended wear
- less breathability
- horses wear through the hole faster since plastic is thinner
- velcro on halter eventually wears out and needs to be taped
Pros:
- inexpensive
- comes with attached halter with velcro breakaway
- extra high sides for ponies that like to escape
- will stay on with added attachments for ponies that easily get out of muzzles
- “just” fits inside of Nelson automatic waterers
- fun pink color (if you like pink)
Cons:
- causes rubs with extended wear
- less breathability
- horses wear through the hole faster since plastic is thinner
- velcro on halter eventually wears out and needs to be taped
Pros:
- Stronger plastic that appears to last much longer than other styles
- Holes can be customized for more or less access to grass
- can be molded to fit your horses’ unique shape
- Breathable design adds more air-flow
- several sizes available
Cons:
- Expensive (but would likely last longer)
- difficult to mold (need hot water)
- we’ve had problems with horses that are really good at escaping getting these caught on things and even stuck in their mouths
- Have to purchase your own halter to attach it to
- does not fit inside Nelson automatic waterers
- can cause really bad rubs if not adjusted properly
Pros:
- inexpensive
- has large breathing holes for extra comfort
- base is a mid-weight plastic that will last a little longer than the Shires or Best Friends muzzle
- shorter sides for improved airflow
- will stay on with added attachments for ponies that easily get out of muzzles
- “just” fits inside of Nelson automatic waterers
- can be purchased with or without attached halter
Cons:
- short sides make it easy for ponies to escape (adding an attachment to the front can prevent this)
- causes rubs with extended wear
- not as many sizes available
Greenguard USA Grazing Muzzle:
Pros:
- Stronger plastic that appears to last much longer than other styles
- Breathable design adds more air-flow
- several sizes available
- Loose fitting design adds comfort for horse
- Designed with more holes to give horse the feeling they aren’t being limited on grass
Cons:
- expensive
- need to purchase a halter to go with it
- will cause rubs with extended wear and if not sized properly
- scooping sides are not ideal for ponies that can easily slip muzzles
- more holes give access to more grass
Tips and Tricks we’ve learned:
- Accessories for Ponies that Like to escape: check out our handy guide for how we add attachments to all our muzzles for the ponies that like to get out of them (ahem, Minnow)
- Rotating muzzles to eliminate rubs: there isn’t a single muzzle out there that isn’t going to rub your horse. When they’re wearing something all the time it’s going to rub them. We’ve found that by having 2 muzzles per pony and rotating between styles our ponies tend to get far less rubs, and stay happier in the long run.
- Add Padding: some of our ponies are more prone to rubbing, so we closely monitor which muzzles are hitting them where and have a stash of sheepskin and other accessories we duct tape onto the muzzles in these spots.
- Giving them time in a dry lot with little hay: no horse wants to wear a muzzle 24/7, so giving them a break in a stall or in a dry lot with token amount of hay keeps them happy. Our ponies spend their days in their stalls with access to a dry lot during the summer months.
What do we recommend?
After testing pretty much every muzzle on the market, we have picked out ones that work best for each of our ponies. Here’s our recommendations:
Minnow – our pony that can (and has) slipped every single muzzle we’ve tried on him. It’s a constant battle, but switching them up on him seems to do the trick. He wears the Best Friends Muzzle & the Tough 1 Muzzle currently.
Blitz – less inclined to slip a muzzle, and a pony that gets worked enough that sometimes he doesn’t have to wear his as often. He wears: Greenguard USA Muzzle & Best Friends Muzzle currently.
Boomer – he’s pretty tolerant of the muzzles, but every once in a while decides to slip them. He wears: Greenguard USA Muzzle & Best Friends Muzzle currently.
Know of any muzzles we haven’t tried yet? Send your recommendations our way, we love to hear about new products on the market!
Grazing Muzzle to Keep Ponies Happy
Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Greenguard USA and does contain some affiliate links. All opinions are my own and I only share products I think you and your horses will love.
If your ponies are anything like our ponies, then you probably struggle with keeping them at the ideal weight and protecting them from laminitis during the summer months when the grass is extra lush. Thanks to our new friends over at Greenguard USA our boys were able to test out one of the newest muzzles for horses on the market, the Greenguard Grazing Muzzle.
The Greenguard’s patented basket style muzzle comes with breakable (for safety) buckles which you can attach to your own halter. It’s also recommended to tape them in place with duct tape once you have them adjusted properly to keep it from sliding around. Stable flies, gnats, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, etc. are extremely annoying to the animal and harm their bodies in different ways too so using the Best Fly Spray For Horses can provide complete protection.
Blitz (on the left) tested out the horse size (he’s 14.1 hands tall) and Boomerang (on the right) tested out the cob size (he’s 13.3 hands tall). We found that with these muzzles it’s better to have them roomier, and Boomerang probably would have been a bit more comfortable in a horse size as well (also to prevent rubbing). We did eventually add some sheepskin padding to Boomer’s halter and the back of the muzzle to prevent rubs, which helped. It’s nearly impossible to prevent any and all rubs when your horse has to wear a muzzle – it’s just the nature of the beast! We’ve also found that rotating muzzle styles every few weeks helps to keep the rubs at bay.
As you can see in this shot of Blitz, the Greenguard muzzle fits loosely around your horses’ nose giving them more room to chew and makes breathing much easier (and cooler too!).
Other muzzles we have tried the ponies wear through the bottom pretty quickly.
The Greenguard muzzle is a much stronger/sturdier plastic which appears like it would likely last a lot longer than some of the traditional styles you might be used to seeing. I also noticed that overnight the traditional style muzzles tended to collect much more dirt and debris than the Greenguard ones, which seems like it would be a lot more comfortable to your horse.
All our horses have automatic (Nelson) waterers in their pastures, and during the summer we always make sure to give them a trough to drink from as well.
Once we found Boomerang (wearing a more standard style muzzle) caught on the automatic waterer, so it’s always a good idea to give your horse a trough if they are wearing a muzzle. The Greenguard muzzles don’t really fit inside the openings of the automatic waterers, so it’s especially important to make sure your horse has access to water.
We compared the Greenguard muzzle to one of the more traditional styles of muzzle to see how much grass our ponies were getting. As you can see the muzzle on the left allows the grass to pop up through one hole in the center, while the Greenguard muzzle on the right has a less amount of grass pop up in several different openings. We felt the Greenguard muzzle made the ponies move their mouths around more to get the grass which kept them busier, and intern happier about the fact that they had to wear a muzzle at all!
Even with the boy’s silly antics we haven’t noticed them trying to escape wearing the Greenguard muzzles at all. We haven’t tried it on our resident escapee pony, Minnow, who has gotten out of every single muzzle ever (even with our added “pony proof” gear). He seems to do better with a muzzle that has higher sides and we didn’t want to risk him slipping this one and having a problem.
The Greenguard Grazing Muzzle can be purchased on Amazon and comes in mini, cob, and horse sizes. (P.S. buddy Ammo the Dachshund couldn’t help himself and photobombed every single video I tried to shoot of the boys grazing, but he’s awfully cute isn’t he!)
Thanks for Greenguard for letting us test out their great muzzle on our boys!
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets new X-rays
Those of you that have followed our ponies’ journey from the beginning may remember that our little Minnow has battled with Ringbone since 2008. Ringbone is essentially a form of equine arthritis, a bone growth in the pastern or coffin joint of a horse. And because in a lot of cases people choose to euthanize a horse with Ringbone (because there is no cure), I have decided to document Minnow’s journey in pain management in the hopes that it might help someone else battling Ringbone in their horse.
Earlier this year we noticed that he seemed to be more lame on his right front (his initial diagnosis and treatment has always been for his left front), so we decided to have him re-xrayed since it’s been 2 years since we last had him checked. We made sure that we used barrier technologies radiation gloves and other safety measurements before the procedure.
Here’s the shot of his left front, 2 years after being injected with Ethyl Alcohol to help the joint fuse faster:
Here’s what it looked like the day we had it injected:
As you can see the joint still is not completely fused, but it’s a lot closer, and it’s actually straightened out some. Which I think has attributed to him being more comfortable on it.
So let’s take a look at the right front, the one that has started to bother him more recently:
It’s hard to tell, but there is some white shading around the pastern joint, and indication that Minnow is at the beginning stages of high ringbone in his right front pastern as well. Our vet consulted with New Bolton Animal Hospital, and determined it’s still too early to inject with Ethyl Alcohol for it to be effective. The fact that he’s also developing this in his other leg further proves that in his particular case it was more genetic than anything. It makes me feel better to know, no matter what I would have done, he would have developed ringbone anyway due to his confirmation.
But not to worry, Minnow is still doing well (he’s super Minnow after all)! And here’s how we’re managing pain today for him:
Minnow is currently taking 1/2 a pill of 57mg of Previcox daily as well as a scoop of GLS joint supplement. Once starting the Previcox we noticed an improvement in Minnow’s pain. He seems much more comfortable and we even noticed an improvement in his limp (on both legs).
If you’d like to check out our previous attempts to help Minnow with his Ringbone diagnosis, you can read more here:
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow’s Trip to New Bolton
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries Ground Control Shoes
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets injected with Ethyl Alcohol
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries GLS
If you have a story to share about your horse and Ringbone, we’d love to hear about it! Post a comment on this blog post, or share it on our Facebook wall.
Minnow visits the Ryerss Farm For Aged Equines
Last weekend Painting Pony visited the Ryerss Farm for their annual Family Fun Day.
Ryerss is a non-profit in Chester County, Pennsylvania that cares for aged, and abused or injured horses by providing a home where they can spend their golden years out to pasture. The horses at Ryerss are never worked, go to auction or are used for experiments. They simply spend their days grazing and enjoying life with their friends on the farm.
Painting Pony has been big supporters of Ryerss since the very beginning, and it’s one of the charity organizations that we donate a percentage of our sales to each year, in my opinion, it is one of the best fundraising ideas I have ever seen.
In fact, when I was a kid our local 4-H club used to visit Ryerss every year to groom the old horses on the farm. So it was fun to go back with my own “aged equine” (Minnow is 21 this year) and help to raise money for their farm.
Both Minnow and Ammo the Dachshund drew big crowds during each of our performances throughout the day. Minnow painted 3 original works of art, which are now available for purchase in our online shop.
“Where the Grass is Greener” by Chincoteague Minnow
“Brushstrokes” by Chincoteague Minnow
“You Have My Heart” by Chincoteague Minnow
Both Ammo and Minnow had a blast showing off some of their favorite tricks for everyone. Below is a collection of photos from our day at Ryerss ….
For even more fun, make sure you check out the video on Instagram, and you can read Ammo’s recap of the day on his blog!
Don’t forget to check out the newest work by Minnow in our online shop! Your purchases help to support animal rescues and charity groups.
–Kyley & The Painting Ponies
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries GLS
If you have followed along at all with Minnow’s journey with high ringbone, then you know over the years we have tried many different things to manage his pain. His diagnosis back in 2008 was career ending for him, but he’s gone on to have a full and loved life as a trick pony. He’s very special to me and I would do anything to make sure he’s comfortable and happy for as long as I can.
Our previous attempts to help Minnow can be read about here:
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow’s Trip to New Bolton
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries Ground Control Shoes
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets injected with Ethyl Alcohol
Since it’s been nearly 2 years since Minnow was injected with Ethyl Alcohol to help fuse his joint I thought it was time for a little update on him. Recently we decided to put him on the supplement, GLS Powder.
We had noticed some improvement in a few other horses with arthritis on our farm and decided to give it a try. And after a few weeks of being on it we did notice he was walking much better than he had been.
Here is a few old videos of Minnow before he was injected with the Ethyl Alcohol, and after his injection:
And here he is just a few weeks ago after being on GLS for a few weeks:
It’s a small change, but he does seem to be more comfortable and we’ve even seen him bucking and running more in the pasture. So for now we will continue to keep him on the GLS Powder and hopefully in time his joint will fuse completely and we can only hope he can then be pain free!
P.S. Minnow has turned 20 this year…here’s to another 10 years with him!
