Remy And Blue

I think Blue and Remy look particularly beautiful when they're grazing near the county road, a scenic picture for passersby:

 If you've been reading this blog, you know that both horses began to get grass founder (laminitis) from eating too much sugary, green grass. I began putting grazing muzzles on them during the day and locking them in the barn at night to keep the problem from worsening. Life since then has been a struggle to keep them in their muzzles and find the discarded muzzles when they slip out of them:

 A blog reader suggested the yellow flagging ribbon, and it has worked admirably. I can see that they are still wearing their muzzles from a distance by checking for the bright yellow flagging:

 Remy still loves attention and it is often difficult to photograph him because he's rushing to get to me for more petting:

 Blue was always more shy and reticent, but a hidden bonus of the new muzzles is all the extra handling they get. Both boys have become even more tame and gentle than they were previously:

 They come back to the barn eagerly at 5:00 each evening for the scant 1/4 cup of grain I give them (too much would worsen the founder). I remove their muzzles for the night and they seem happy:

 They graze all day long but the muzzles slow down their consumption:

 I had to put cow collars on them to which I tie the muzzles in order to help keep them on. I learned, though, not to tie them with baling twine because Blue sometimes slips off the muzzle and then gets his legs caught in it as it hangs from the collar. Now I use small Chihuahua collars with a quick-release feature (you can see the red collar on Remy in this photo). The problem is that they go through about four of them per week:

 I did use baling twine for Remy one day when I ran out of Chihuahua collars, but he's never gotten entangled in one like Blue has:

 Both boys have become more accustomed to their muzzles. They don't like them, but they don't fight them like they did at first:

 And both boys seem happy and healthy:

 One added benefit of this new system is all the extra exercise I get as I walk the pasture, searching for the shucked muzzles. In this case, one of them had slipped out of the muzzle, cow collar and Chihuahua collar. They sure do keep me on my toes: