How often do you wash your grazing muzzles? What do you wash them with? Do you wait for them to dry before putting them back on? I’m talking about the muzzles with a nylon basket. Thanks!
I just spray them out with the hose once a week or so. More if they look especially gunky in there. I do not “wash” them with soap or anything. Yes, I allow them to mostly dry before re-use, so I have several. Although, I’m not sure why that matters. He dunks it in the trough to drink.
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I have just started transitioning my easy keepers from a 24/7 dry lot to out at night (I find they really overheat in a muzzle in the summer here in MD, even at night). When I remove muzzles in the morning, I bang them upside down on a gate or fence board to get most of the soil and roots out. That seems to do the trick. Sometimes I hose them out (no soap). I don’t necessarily wait for them to dry if we are in 24/7 muzzle season (aka Nov/Dec most years).
When my horse had to wear a grazing muzzle, I brought it to the house every night and washed the inside with hot water, Dawn Dish soap and !ong handled kitchen scrub brush.
Since it’s my house, it sat on a towel on the tv end of the kitchen counter until I went to the barn the next morning:)
I have the Tough1 Easy Breathe for my mini.
Rubber basket, nylon attached halter.
When he was on my near-drylot small pasture, I’d wash out the muzzle part to make sure no crusty patches were left to irritate his nose & lips.
If the weather was hot, I’d dunk the whole thing in my trough & hang to dry overnight.
Now he’s out in my big field, where the grass has gotten overgrown, but Fall weather means it’s safe for him to be out all day, muzzled.
Muzzle stays cleaner as he’s not rooting for grass.
If I need to dunk it & it’s still damp in the morning, he wears it w/o a problem.
I just came across another chat forum where a few people said they put them in a pillowcase in a washing machine. I may try that because I did notice that they stink! Better do that when DH isn’t home to hear them crashing around in there!
I washed my ponies nylon one in the dishwasher with the no dry option when I wash his food bowls. Currently using the non-mesh option and it cleans up just as well.
How often? When it needs it. I often wipe it down with a wet rag a few times a week, and maybe spray the basket with the hose if its particularly dirty. As mentioned above, they drink out of them so I don’t worry about the nose part being wet (I don’t get the halter part wet because I don’t want Pony wearing a wet halter all night).
I just ran mine through the laundry machine. I had to put one through twice but they came out nicely. I think I’ll do that weekly from now on to keep them fresh. Thanks for the tips!
Ummm, when it rains?
It literally looks squeaky clean on the inside. Maybe my guy licks up all the grass bits on his own? I look at it every day when I take it off, but have never noticed more than one stray piece of grass occasionally. Had no idea this was a thing.
Huh, people wash them? I mean, I will sometimes need to spray mud out of them if it’s been wet and they’ve just been rolling in mud, or have pulled up clumps of dirt with the grass 
But with them dunking them in the water tub to drink, they really aren’t any dirtier than their environment.
If I do have to spray/dunk the muzzle and/or halter, I just put it back on, wet and all - no different than if they were out in the field and got rained on.
So essentially - I spray/dunk if there’s dirt in it, otherwise, the water tub does that.
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Mine smelled a bit funky but looked clean. The filth that was left behind in the washing machine indicated otherwise.
I rinse the inside of the basket out daily, after removal from my horse. There’s one particular spot that is usually a bit dirty. Hang it to dry.
Other than that, the muzzle doesn’t really get grungy, but my horse is only wearing it for two or three hours per day.
