ThinLine introduces the Flexible Filly Grazing Muzzle with adjustable grazing hole size to customize the muzzle to your horse’s dietary needs. The muzzle is manufactured with food grade resins that provide a durable yet lightweight, flexible alternative to traditional muzzles. Veterinarian recommendations for safe grazing in a muzzle are a 3.5 to 4 cm grazing hole for full-time grazing, and 2 to 2.5 cm for restricted grazing often required for horses with metabolic issues. The industry standard is 3 cm and grazing holes are not adjustable.

Most horses are maintained on a forage-based diet, meaning that the primary component of their daily ration is hay or pasture. In the equine nutrition world, the term “forage-first” has gained popularity.

Respiratory disease is one of the most important health concerns facing the horse industry, and accounts for one of the biggest reasons why horses miss training days (Rossdale et al., 1985). Equine asthma, also known as “heaves,” is one of the more troublesome small airway diseases which causes an elevated respiratory rate, chronic coughing and runny nose, and affected horses often find it difficult to exhale.

With exercise, the body temperature rises. This heat must be dissipated, or the horse will literally “cook”! The body cools itself through the evaporation of sweat, so sweating is especially important for the exercising horse. The sweat contains water and electrolytes, or salts. The main electrolytes are sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. When the body loses water and electrolytes, various functions are compromised, and the health of the horse can be at risk. To ensure that your horse remains healthy, learn to effectively replace both the water and electrolytes — and the electrolytes must be replaced in balance with what has been lost.