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ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle. Here's what you need to know
Introduction
The ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle is a muzzle recommended to us by a friend, as we were using rubber muzzles that our horses hated. We have bought three and fit them to our horses to see their response. We also compared the rubber-style muzzles with the new ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzles.
Out of the box
Straight away, ThinLine likes to give you a premium feel to everything, and even though the muzzle doesn’t come with a box per se, the bag you get with it can be repurposed – perfect for packaging small items in your tack trunk. Other than that, once the muzzle is affixed to a halter, the bag that the muzzle comes in is more of a packaging item than anything useful. Additionally, the muzzle also comes with instructions and temporary and permanent cable ties to attach to the halters. Further, the cable ties that come with the muzzle are also very nice and feel premium with no sharp edges, which is fantastic.
The muzzles themselves come in three different sizes, Mini-Pony, Cobbed-Horse, and Oversized – Draft. The instructions on the website were clear. ThinLine mentioned that for warmbloods, use the Oversized muzzle, and for small horses, use the Cob-Horse muzzle.
The ThinLine Halters
We elected to purchase the ThinLine halters with the muzzles. We were debating between these halters and using existing leather halters. However, the ThinLine halters had some distinct advantages:
- They feature a unique stitching arrangement to secure the wings of the muzzle in their appropriate position. This ensures the cable ties used to affix the muzzle are on the outside of the halter.
- They have a leather headpiece rated to break just after the muzzle breaks, BUT THEY WILL BREAK. This is critical to us since we have trees in our pastures.
- ThinLine offers optional halter padding that can be purchased at a later date to prevent rubs.
- Since the ThinLine muzzle will be permanently affixed to a halter, we decided to keep our current leather halters for grooming purposes.
The ThinLine halters have five sizes, as compared to the three muzzle sizes. These sizes include medium mini, pony, COB, horse, and oversized.
ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle – Small Grazing Hole
ThinLine offers two hole sizes for grazing. They offer Restricted 2.5 cm and a Full size 3+ cm holes. It suggested that the smaller hole size is suitable for laminitic horses or ones with immediately restricted diets. All this said, the larger hole is only available on the Cob-Horse size muzzle. So, by default, we ordered the restricted 2.5 cm holes.
What we found is that the hole size is too small, and frustrated our horses. In English units, the opening is roughly an inch in diameter. Although this may be suitable, we found that changing the hole size to around 1½ inches makes the horses much happier while continuing to restrict grass intake. Fortunately, the ThinLine material is very malleable and can be cut easily.
Weight Difference
The weight difference between the original rubber muzzle and the ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle is very noticeable. As the ThinLine muzzle is made from a malleable plastic, the weight difference is very prominent. Thus, the horse has to carry less weight and is a MUCH happier horse.
Fitting Adjustments
Before attaching the muzzle permanently with cable ties, you will need to adjust the fit. ThinLine provides temporary ties to make sure you make the proper adjustment. You should have it so that the muzzle is approximately 1 inch off the lower lip, so there is no rubbing or ability to eat out of the sides of the muzzle.
Once you finalize the positioning, you will affix the muzzle with the permanent cable ties. The cable ties that ThinLine provides are quite exceptional. Typical ties when cutting sick out from the front and have the potential for sharp edges. The way the ThinLine ties are designed, when cut, the ends point down, so they don’t poke us when using the halter.
When affixed and the halter is on the horse, we noticed less restriction in breathing as with the original rubber muzzles.
ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle Review Conclusion
All in all, we think that the ThinLine Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzles are one of the best muzzles around and are a considerable step up from the traditional rubber muzzles that we were using previously. We are very impressed with both the ThinLine halter and the muzzle, especially after using it for a few days during turnout. The horses appreciate them much better than the original muzzles, which makes everyone happy.
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