diet/muzzling advice needed for my fatty!

[CrazyMare]

Well, the grass is beginning to grow in the field now, I have put my cobs muzzle on 24/7 now, but my question is when should i dust off the electric fencer unit to pen him up? He is in a 6 acre field with just one other horse at the moment, the owner keeps spreading fertilizer all over it for his dairy cows in the summer(have spoken to him about it but its a soil improver apparently:mad: ) and the grass is getting greener every second.
should I leave him out in the field, with his nylon web muzzle on during the day(he gets alot of grass through it, he has wared away the rubber hole in the bottom with his teeth!) and put(I know cruel it is) a plastic bucket muzzle on at night to slow his intake down? Is it ok to leave him all night with just water as i have looked at the stubbs plastic ones and they only have holes for drinking and tiny amounts of grass? just thinking he shouldn't be able to ware away the bottom so much with these although the main muzzle would be the nylon one. My friend said it would help if he had a rest from eating for a couple of hours with one of these on. any ideas on the routine i can give him this summer?
I was thinking of something like this...
fence off an area with electric fencing, and access to his field shelter, muzzle him most of the time with his nylon muzzle, let him out once a day to have a play with his buddy with a plastic muzzle on so he is not eating just exercising, leave him for a couple hours, then back in his pen for the night with the nylon muzzle again? And keep moving his pen so he has small amounts of grass to nibble at through his muzzle. he will be getting ridded about twice wk, lunged during the wk.
He had the nylon muzzle on 24/7 last year and he still put on weight if I allowed him too much access to the grass!
Does this sound ok for him?

[Alfies-slave]

They need a constant trickle of grass, the trick is to turn down the flow. If they are left with no access to food then the risk of colic, ulcers and psychological damage increases.

You could try stabling the horse part of the time and feeding hay in a small hole net. Increasing the amount of work the horse does is the best solution.

Hate to be blunt, but if you can't provide suitable accomodation, grazing and exercise for the horse then it is better to sell it to someone who can and get yourself something that doesn't have weight issues.

[CrazyMare]

I Shut him in his field shelter last year, he had about an 1-2 hours in there with small hole hay net, but he used to get him self all worked up because he can't really see his field mate when she vanishes over the hill, so I wasn't going to do that this year but might reconsider.
I'm afraid I have to disagree on selling him to someone 'who could look after him better', yeah it gets a bit tricky when I can usually only ride weekends, lunge on week day evenings etc, and having to rent my field is a pain but I expect lots of other owners face this too.
I love my cobs too much to be with out one!
As long as the horse is happy,healthy
sometimes you just have to work with what you got;)
If my horse was suffering, being neglected I would reconsider in a flash.

[Sam_22]

Hi CrazyMare

'Sometimes you just have to work with what you've got' - couldn't have said it better myself. You sound like you look after him just fine :)

[Jessey]

I wouls definatly pen him off - dairy cattle grass is very rich - too much so for most horses - is the other horses owner concerned too? perhaps they could be penned together in a slightly larger area and the farmer could avoid fertilizing that area?
I do agree he should be able to trickle feed all the time - I thought the plastic bucket type ones only had holes round the edge for breathing and drinking? I would stick with a nylon one and just replace them more often, they aren't desperatly expensive now :o
As he will be on restricted grazing, I would also provide some time that he can have access to a mineral and vitamin supplement, eithe in the form of a block/lick or a supplement added to a tiny feed or those treat type ones. Horses tend to get more out of what they do eat if they are lacking certain nutrients as their system goes into overdrive, ensuring they get these essentials can help to slow the system down so it doesn't eek every ounce of nutriant out of every mouthful - aiding weight loss ;)

[CrazyMare]

He has a mineral lick in his field shelter which he goes in when I pick his feet out, groom etc every day, so he can have a lick at it then without his muzzle on.
I emailed 'Best friend' muzzle company regarding how tough their bases are compared to the shires,(having trouble with shires bases wearing thin) they emailed back saying there is no comparison between the 2! Shires has tried to copy the look but have apparently made them no where near as durable,tough as the best friend make, you can fold the shires muzzles in half easily because of the soft rubber, but you can't with the 'best friend' make apparently! also they stated one should last me at least 2 yrs, so very tempted by there sales talk!:p
Was only going to use plastic muzzle for very short periods of time- max 2 hours, and it would be in the evening when cool.
regarding the other horse- she's an Elderly TB, who is quite a poor doer and needs all the grass she can get, and has never suffered from lami/over weight problems! so it is very difficult managing the 2, especially when my boy gets so lonely when she wanders off and he is stuck on his own in the paddock bless!

[FudgieFoo]

How about getting him a little shetland friend? That way he could stay indoors longer. It is best for weight control that he only grazes 12 hours a day. I would certainly be cautious - but you seem to know that!

[CrazyMare]

would love to do that but our field contract(its rented) only allows one other horse to be kept in the field, thats the owners horse!:rolleyes: