Hello,
I am 56 years old and have had a 28 year career as a licensed clinical social worker, I work in a college counseling center. I've also been involved with horses since I was about 11. I went to a school in Maryland called Potomic Horse Center when I was 18 and earned the horsemaster level of the USPC. I ride english and western. When I was younger I was involved in showing. Now horses are my way of staying grounded.
I currently have 2 horses; a 9 year old paint named Pablo and a 25 year old appaloosa named Hershey. I bought Hershey for my daughter when he was 15 and she learned to ride on him. I bought Pablo when he was a weanling and I've trained him myself. I ride Pablo with an austrailan saddle and an english bridle. Hershey goes western or english. I enjoy trail riding and just hanging out around the barn.
I board these horses at a farm owned by a super nice family that also grows hay. This past Christmas the owner's daughter got a horse and I have been helping her learn to ride and getting her horse going for her. It's just the 3 horses on this farm and they have plenty of pasture, they love it. They forage on pasture and we only give a handful of pellet food when we bring them in the barn. The horses were on the pasture 24/7 and had run-in access to the barn.
Unfortunately, Pablo has gotten fat and this spring has had a mild case of laminitis. The farm owner put fertilizer on the pasture, which he has been doing since I've been there for the past 7 years, and we've never had problems. We've had a couple of years of drought conditions and this year we've finally gotten enough rain that the water table is almost at normal levels. I think the nitrite levels just pushed him over the edge. After keeping him up in his stall for a week and cutting his food intake, I've put him on a diet and I've been trying to keep a grazing muzzle on him when he is out in the pasture for 12 hours. I've been putting the horses up for 12 hours a day. I don't have a dry lot, just a metal rail round pen and I've been afraid to leave him in there because I know he'll try to get out and probably hurt himself.
Pablo is an escape artist! I can't keep the grazing muzzle on him. It's a Weaver product, very sturdy and he has slipped it off easily despite having it correctly adjusted. I put a halter on underneath it and tied it with rawhide strings and he ripped the nylon webbing. I took it to the shoe repair and got it stitched back together. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do.
Has anyone had experience with grazing muzzles? Do you have ideas about how to keep it on my horse? I would appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks!