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Are Grazing Muzzles effective?

30th July 2007

If your horse or pony is prone to laminitis or needs to lose weight, one way of managing their diets is to make them wear a grazing muzzle. But how effective are these devices? Tracey Hammond, one of Dengie's nutritionists has studied this area and from her findings, there appears to be a 75-86% decrease in intake for horses wearing muzzles.

Tracey states that "The horses muzzled in this study did not appear to try and compenstate for the restriction and spent more time resting and less time grazing than horses that were grazing freely". Whilst Tracey cautions that this study was only undertaken using a small number of horses, and the duration of the study did not allow for prolonged observation as to whether horses' behaviour altered with experience of using the muzzle, it does provide some interesting insights for owners of horses or ponies who need to lose weight or who might be prone to laminitis.

If you would like more information on the study and tips on how to introduce muzzles to your horse or pony click here.

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