Why use a grazing mask?
Many horses suffer from overweight. You want your horse to enjoy being on the pasture, but it’s not easy to limit the intake of grass or hay. A grazing mask allows you to easily reduce food intake.
Research has shown that your horse eats significantly less with a grazing mask.
- Without a grazing mask, a pony eats about 0.8% of its body weight in three hours. For a pony weighing 350 kg, this means 2.8 kg of dry matter. This is about 17.5 kg of grass in 3 hours = 5.8 kg of grass per hour.
- With a grazing mask, a pony eats about 0.14% of its body weight in three hours. For a pony weighing 350 kg, this means 0.49 kg of dry matter. This is about 3.06 kg of grass in 3 hours = 1.02 kg of grass per hour.
- On average, a well-fitting grazing mask results in a reduction of dry matter intake by about 82% compared to ponies that can graze freely.
Note: It varies from horse to horse how much grass your horse takes in during its time in the pasture. This also varies depending on the pasture and grazing mask.
Advantages of grazing masks
+ It limits your horse’s food intake speed.
+ Horses that are more prone to becoming overweight can stay on grass for longer.
+ Horses with insulin resistance may benefit from a grazing mask as they will ingest less sugar at once. This helps prevent large sugar spikes.
+ Horses that are on the pasture for a short time often tend to eat a lot all at once; a grazing mask can help limit this.
+ A horse can drink without any problems while wearing a grazing mask.
Using a grazing mask
- Make sure that your grazing mask fits well and is properly mounted.
- It’s important to let your horse get used to wearing a grazing mask gradually. For example, let your horse wear the mask for half an hour at first and slowly increase the duration.
- Be aware that horses with a grazing mask cannot exhibit natural behaviors in a herd, such as grooming each other.
- So pay attention to which herd you let your horse stay with.
Your horse may need to get used to the new smell of rubber, which could cause it to sneeze. - Keep a close eye on your horse at the beginning.
