Blue And Remy On Pasture

Ever since I learned that Blue and Remy were foundering, which is a separation of the outer and inner hooves from eating too much green grass, I've been trying to solve the problem by putting grazing muzzles on them:

The muzzles still allow them to eat, but more slowly, so they can't binge on fresh grass:

I leave the boys out on pasture with their friends, the cows, until dinnertime. Then I call them in for a tiny bit of grain (they can't have too much of that either). I remove the muzzles and leave them in the barn overnight with hay and water:


Blue and Remy have been able to continue to enjoy their days on pasture, but it hasn't been easy on me to get them to stay in their muzzles. I spent several weeks searching for their discarded muzzles in the tall weeds of the pasture. Finally, I put cow collars on the horses and tied the muzzles to the collars. I also had to bush hog the pasture so I could find the muzzles if and when they jettisoned them:


I also had to get used to seeing the look of the muzzles because they reminded me of some medieval torture device. The horses thought so too at first, but they gradually got used to them:

A thoughtful blog reader suggested tying flagging ribbon to the muzzles. This makes them easier to find if the horses get them off, and it also makes it easier for me to see that they are still wearing them. Even far out in the field, if I see the flashes of yellow on the sides of their head, I know the muzzles are on:

One rainy evening, the horses were at the far end of the field and refused to come in for the night. I didn't want to leave them out overnight wearing the muzzles, so I walked out to get them. One at a time, I managed to hook a lead onto their collar (the muzzle would be too flimsy and they no longer have halters on) and lead them all the way back to the barn. They did NOT want to go and bucked, reared and ran in circles. I can only guess that the rain had something to do with that, but whatever it was, I never want to go through it again. They were their regular, lovable selves once we reached the barn:

I truly think they are beginning to slim down, and their coats are extra sleek and shiny. This whole affair, while hard on us all, has been good for them. Come to think of it, it's also caused me to get a lot of extra exercise:

We finally managed to go six days without either horse removing his muzzle. I thought we had finally "arrived," but on the seventh day they both managed to shuck them and I had to go searching. Thanks to the newly bush hogged pasture, though, they were easy to find:

They are becoming used to wearing their muzzles and now understand that they can still eat grass. After all, horses have been wearing halters, harnesses, bridles, hats and all kinds of foreign objects for as long as they've been domesticated:

And we are gradually returning to quiet scenes of the herd on pasture: