Grass Muzzles for pasture horses – That’s crazy! Or is it? Grass muzzles are a hot item these days.
I see them at almost every equine event I attend. Truthfully, I almost laughed the fi rst time I saw one. Then I thought to myself “that is a great idea”, many horse owners today really need them. But why? For thousands of years wild horses have lived on grass alone and typically they ate all they wanted. There was no one to stop them, turn them out for only a few hours
at a time or worse yet MUZZLE them. Today, colic, allergies, metabolic issues, laminitis, hoof
and other health issues are often associated with eating too much grass. What is different about
today’s grass or perhaps what is different about the horse? Obviously a lot has changed! If we
truly look at the way it was and, “mimic” what’s natural, perhaps we can have healthier horses and avoid a lot of problems.

Today’s species of grasses are totally different from the past. Most horses today on pasture only have one or two varieties of grass –
usually timothy, orchard grass with some degree of clover and fescue. In the wild, they had access to vast areas of grass and abundant species.
Equally important was access to other plants and herbs. Today they eat what they have access to in the spaces we confi ne them to. Most species of grass (and even grain) today are genetically today are genetically modififi ed– a controversy and discussion all in itself.

By being able to “pick and choose” what they needed horses received a balance of nutrients.
For instance, as I am sure you know most horses will chew on tree bark. Of course it is bad for
the trees – totally inconsequential in the wilderness, but in the back yard pasture, chewed dead trees look awful! Simple sugars called
polysaccharides and amino acids like methionine and perhaps tannins are probably what they are
after by eating the trees. Regardless, if methionine is supplemented most horses have better hooves. Supplementing simple
polysaccharide sugars (not ref ned complex table sugar or syrup) will often help the gut (sometimes
stop cribbing and help ulcers, too) – the gut being the source of almost all problems in a horse. One such simple sugar in particular is
Arabinogalactan, obtained from the Western Larch tree. Another is Mannose – from the Aloe plant. The Native American Indians and “grandmas” everywhere have used these substances for centuries. In other parts of the world they may have used Noni fruit or Pomegranate or whatever was native to the area – and if horses were there had access to them,
be assured they ate the bark, fruit (or whatever) too! This is one of the reasons supplements are so important today – horses just can’t get all they need from the typical diets we give them, and the one or two species of grass they graze just doesn’t provide all they may need. There are most likely many ingredients or micronutrients
that we have not yet discovered. I believe we will someday classify polysaccharides as “ESSENTIAL” polysaccharides, just like there are essential amino acids, and essential fatty acids now.

The need for essential fatty acids like Omega 3, 6 and 9 are beginning to be more recognized
by horse owners today. In the wild, horses can pick and choose seeds and grass heads from
various grasses and plants to get the fatty acids they need – in our care they take what we give them – unfortunately, until recently they have received very little. For the most part, they just receive sugars (like from corn and molasses),
which, as we know, turns to fat but are not essential fatty acids. Today high fat is “in” but again we must be careful. The easy thing to do is
buy cheap fat like REFINED or partially hydrogenated oils (corn oil for instance). The problem with any refi ned oil is that all the “goody” is fi ltered out and sold for other purposes. Hydrogenated oils are more stable and less likely to spoil or go rancid, which is why
they are used in almost every snack food, but they actually harden and damage cells within the body and make tissue less pliable. This can actually make a situation like insulin resistance or metabolic disease (which are often the clinical problems that trigger the need for fats to be supplemented in the fi rst place) to be even more
of a problem. “Hardened” cells don’t respond to insulin and other “metabolic reactions” like more
pliable cells would. Over time “hydrogenation” causes premature aging because more and more
insulin must be produced and the body’s cells become more and more damaged.