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Discussion on Grazing Muzzles
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Member:
Quatro
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Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 10:31 pm:
I though I would share my experience with training Levi to the grazing muzzle, so was looking for 2006 also.
Anyhow, if anyone has tried a Grazing muzzle, you will find they don't really like it. I have been working with Levi, and am quite proud of our accomplishments.
When I first put it on him, I did so in his stall. I put a small plastic bowl in the bottom, and put a handful of oats in there. We did this several times a day for several days. He then pushed his face into the halter.
We then hand walked into the grass yard. He really freaked out at the tickling of the grass on his muzzle and would shake his head and furrow his brow. I snatched handfuls of grass and pushed them through the hole for a few days. We then worked on putting our head down, and I would snatch handfuls of grass and push them through the hole, while his head was in against the ground. I found that if I pulled up on the muzzle, and made it tighter on his face, he had more luck getting some grass in on his own. We worked several days with him getting frustrated and praised everytime a morsel of grass entered the tiny hole. Today we hit paydirt! He figured out that if he smashed his face into the ground, after ocassionally pawing at the grass in frustration, he could actually rip the grass out of the earth. I had him on a long line, and let him lead me around to different spots, but eventually, He would show calming eyes, and graze with his buddies.
It has taken us several days, and lots of praise and pets, but he is much happier being out in the sun, and "pretend" grazing. I don't think you can just put them on and walk away. They need to learn the rewards, by manual feeding, but I think we will be DrOpping some pounds in the future!
Suz
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Member:
Hannah
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 7, 2006 - 1:17 pm:
I made the hole in the muzzle slightly bigger, and my horse got it at once! I did put grass into the hole for him initially, but within half an hour or so he had got the hang of it. So it doesen´t have to be too difficult. The reason I made the hole bigger was because the amount of grass he actually managed to get through was too little to keep him occupied.. I actually found him wandering into his paddock and trying to eat hay instead of the lush green grass Poor thing, he probably thought the eating situation would be the same as the good old days in there..
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Member:
Quatro
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 7, 2006 - 6:04 pm:
Hey Liv, I thought of making the hole a bit bigger. I actually have abandoned the muzzle for a while, opting to limit time. He gets so frustrated and starts pawing the ground, digging up the dirt, because he can't get much in there.
I think I will try that.
suz
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Member:
Hannah
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 8, 2006 - 4:39 am:
It doesen´t have to be much either. I enlarged the hole only about 0,5cm. It´s minimal, but it made a HUGE difference. I abandoned the muzzle for a while too, since it seemed to make him more frustrated than anything else. I was afraid that I would ruin the muzzle if I started messing with it, but since I was not able to use it anyway, I could just as well give it a shot. And now he happily grazes for as long as I allow him.
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