![]() Horses of a healthy weight have ribs that can be found. Weight charts are readily available and you can compare your horse to those. The very best tool in your box is a weight tape from the feed store (often free). You don’t need to hire a professional to tell if your horse is overweight – it is easy to learn how to check this yourself. “Easy keeper” used to be a desirable term, but it is actually much more work to manage and maintain an easy keeper than many other types of horses! How to tell if your horse needs a muzzle Later in life, horses can also acquire Cushing’s disease, which makes them more susceptible to laminitis if they eat too much grass. So it is very important to manage your horse’s weight. This makes it very hard for them to lose weight, and they can develop laminitis, a very painful, debilitating disease that can have fatal complications. The serious side of obesity in horses is that they can become insulin resistant (IR). ![]() Modern horsekeeping typically consists of giving horses commercial feeds and rich pastures designed for fattening cattle, along with limited exercise. During this time, they are moving constantly, except during relatively short periods of sleep. This means they were made to graze on whatever scrub, grass and weeds were available for the greater part of 24 hours a day, with only about four hours of rest. Horses were designed by nature to be foraging animals. This article will help you decide if and when your horse might really need a grazing muzzle, and if so, how to fit and use it properly for his comfort and happiness. When your vet, farrier or best friend looks at your horse and says, “You need to think about using a grazing muzzle,” is your reaction one of surprise and denial? You may have noticed your horse was getting a bit overweight, but it isn’t that bad, right? And aren’t muzzles cruel? If your horse is an easy keeper, he may benefit from a grazing muzzle while on pasture.
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