Bad laceration from barbed wire

[Loui5e]

Hi I put a grazing mask on my very over weight new mare this morning she was not impressed, so much so that an hour later she had ripped her face open on a barbed wire fence. She has a deep laceration just above her eye got the vet out straight away and he put some staples in said would be fine and no scar.

What do I do now? She is very over weight I am exercising her 5 times a week but she has a lot to lose. Do I try again with the mask and hope she will just get used to it without further injury, or leave it and just continue with the exercise.
I cannot put electric fence up as it is not my field and there is a lot of fencing, I will ask the farmer but he is on holiday.

Thanks Louise

[Nik-n-Kia]

why not try a fly fringe instead of a mask if she is findin it hard to wear one???

Or put it on in the stable to get her used to it.

Nikki xxxx

[frazz_starlight]

But it's a muzzle:-S i think you should let her get used to it in the field, watch her for a while too. Took my horse about 3 days to learn how to use it. Oh and don't leave it on all day, let her hav about 2 or 3 hours without it.
Oh and hope she gets better soon, poor beasty!
xxxx

[Nik-n-Kia]

oooops :cool:

i saw mask and thought fly mask as my vet was telling me a horror sory of a horse that ran through a barbwire fence because it couldnt see it!!!

can you not pen off a small area so that she can eat that into the ground before moving on to another bit??? It means that your not letting her graze the whole field. I did that for Kia. I also took a strimmer over the grass before putting him in it and raked the cut grass away so that he wasnt getting the full lot.

Nikki xxxx

[Alfies-slave]

You are not goingto believe this... one of mine did almost exactly the same thing, I found him all sorry for himself this morning!

Only difference is that he has used the muzzle for ages, and cut his face just above where the brow band goes.

I can't help thinking that the muzzles make them a bit careless round barbed wire.

A horse can't see what is immediately under its nose... If an unmuzzled horse encounters the wire it will feel it with its nose and move away. Because the nose is de-sensetised with the muzzle, the horse does not register that the thing it is planning on rubbing on etc is barbed wire and not some harmless object.

At the end of the day, muzzling deprives the horse of a very imortant sensory organ... its nose and whiskers. You could liken it to a human being blindfolded.

I am unsure about continuing with the muzzle. I think your experience has made up my mind to stable the horse more, buy a mizer haynet for when he is in, and exercise him more!

The penny has dropped!