Greenguard muzzles - keeping it on

[Cathy Reynolds]

Advice please, as I know several board members use these very successfully.

We have a real problem with the Greenguard muzzle. Benny eats happily in it, so the principle of eating less grass works.

But if I fit the accompanying headcollar loosely, Benny simply gets down for a roll, puts his head on the ground, and wriggles the headcollar off over his ears. If we tighten it up, so the muzzle fits snugly, he gets two rub marks where the side pieces (metal) on the headcoller rub, and a lump on the front of his nose where the plastic loop fits.

I also have a fieldsafe headcoller - that comes straight off becuase he just stretches the rubber 'bands'.

By the way his yard name is Harry Houdini - whcih should give you an idea of behaviour patterns.

[Sharon H]

Hi Cathy, we've found that you have to fiddle a bit with each horse depending on the type of headcollar and the horse it'self! The one I have on my Shetland rubbed his nose so we put a piece of sheepskin behind it which solved the problem. Alternatively you could dispense with the plastic piece that goes over the nose band and sew a pice of sheepskin around the strap and down either side to stop it slipping around. I use a 'Fly Free' gadget to turn an ordinary headcollar into a safe one. The Fieldsafe ones are useless for using with the muzzle, far to floppy! I find that the softer webbing headcollars are more comfortable, not the really cheap ones, they're a bit too soft. My friend has made an attatchment that she uses with one of her horses and it is a webbing strap that comes down from the headpiece, down the front of the face and then attatches to the front piece of the muzzle. You might find that fitting the noseband of the headcollar further down would stop it rubbing against the side of his face. It's trial and error really, see if you can borrow a few different types of headcollar you'd be amazed at the difference in the fit between makes.

[KarlR]

I'm sorry to say that after 2 days we took our back to the shop as useless. No matter how tightly you fitted it he could still manage to move it to the side or under and graze as before. We tried different headcollars too, but he just pulled it off. Sorry!

[Cathy Reynolds]

I was wondering about sheepskin. I'll try that. He is SUCH a PIG. What's a Flyfree gadget please?

[whisper]

Yes, i just ordered one too and found it useless.
Horse could get it off if it was at the recommeded 1cm away from lips, only way she couldnt get it off was if it was on so tight her lips stuck thru the muzzle!
So its gone back to the shop too

[Sharon H]

I'm sorry to hear that Karl and Whisper couldn't get on with them, we've got 6 different horses using them at our yard, I guess we must be lucky! The 'Fly Free' gadget is a buckle attatched to a small piece of webbing that has velcros at the bottom and then there is another piece of webbing that splits into two pieces with velcro on them that then 'envelope' the other piece. Hope that makes sense! You use it inbetween where the headcollar does up over the head and the idea is that if they get caught up, the bit with the velcro on just pulls apart and the headcollar falls off. They cost about £2. The buckle is an 'under and over' sort and the other piece has holes in so they will fit headcloors with any type of buckle. I think they're made by Areborn but I might be wrong, it's definately some well-know manufacterer anyway. Let me know if you can't find one and I'll get you one from our local saddler if you like?

[Cathy Reynolds]

Have since found it in one of the catalogues thanks. Will try it out. Managed to get an offcut of sheepskin (very fetching it is too!) and some thread for stitching leather so will make soft covers for the little dear!