Spring Turnout

Marlene · Advanced

Spring Turnout

dbliron · Advanced

Hi, Marlene:

I live just north of you, above Enderby on the way to Gardom Lake, and our grass is now coming on well too.

I've used both grazing muzzles and slow-feed haynets, both to good effect. I have had some horses who found both restricting and frustrating, but they've all learned to manage, and they are much safer and more satisfied using the grazing muzzle. I use the slow-feed haynets at competitions, and find that the horses waste much less hay, but are kept busy eating for more time, so we're all happy with that solution. I did have one mare in the UK who could hoover thorugh the slow-feed nets, but she was 18 hh and the size of a semi, so she needed more just to keep up.

I'm fortunate in the horses I have. We have 18 acres, mostly in pasture, and 3 WB's on it. They all work hard, and are fed hay in feeders in the pastures in the morning (that amount's dropping now), and hay in their stalls overnight. None of them are greedy about food, so they do very well on the hay/pasture mix and don't get themselves in trouble. If I run into a horse which can't tolerate that, the grazing muzzle goes on right away. Horses can eat hay quite reasonably through the muzzles too, and grazing muzzles were hugely helpful in keeping my daughter's ponies healthy and sound by restricting their intake and keeping them busy.

It might be wise to bear in mind that some horses "come in hungry" regardless of their intake - that's not always the best indicator of how much they're eating. We use a weight tape, and monitor the hard forage carefully, and that helps a lot with keeping things on an even keel.

Marlene · Advanced

Thanks for the last tip especially dbliron, I'll keep that in mind. I also suspect that he is getting more efficient with the muzzle with each day of practice. He is always famished. I see other horses eat and then rest for extended periods. He will stop long enough to catch a power nap, but he would eat probably as much as I would give him if he could. I watch his neck, he gets cresty as soon as it's too much. Last year as an experiment I let him graze three hours out of 24, and gave him virtually no hay when off the pasture and he maintained his weight, that's pretty efficient grazing. He was like a marathoner (in an eating sort of way), so I thought the muzzle/haynet regulates him a bit better. In winter I put a couple of small breaks in the haynet, but for summer, we'll see. I've heard of some horses needing double hay nets! His pasture pal for the last two summers ate freely 24/7 on the same pasture and gained a little that she had lost in winter, so came out about right.