I am wondering if the use of grazing halters would help me with a few issues with my mules. Some of the things are.

controling their weight in the summer

in the summer they get pretty independent if they are getting all the grass they can swallow

in the fall and winter they scalp the pasture, I'm thinking that they wouldn't eat so close to the ground.

I looked at one in the feed store the other day, it only had a hole in the nose cup about the size of a quarter. I looked impossible to eat through.
what are your thoughts or experiance with these

Mules are a lot more independant than horses.Letting them free choice on pasture 24/7 gives them the atitude that they really don't need you. Mules are pretty smart. "Why should I be caught up and worked by this human if I can get all I need without them"
You won't like the answer,but to solve your problem you need to keep them caught up. Only let them out 4-5 hurs a day to graze. At least keep, them caught up at night. ( but they will still get too fat)In the non growing months, buy hay. Let them out maybe every other day to exersize.
Also by keeping them caught up,when they are out, bribe them with a little grain or treats when you catch them. In a week or so they will be coming up to you to get it.

Mules have a much more efficient digestion system than horses and can't stand all that prosperity of being able to eat 24 hrs a day.A grazing muzzle will work for awhile, but I bet the mules find a way to tear it up and secondly turning any animal out with a halter or contraption on thier head is asking for trouble.

Keeping them penned up or at least partially so,is just one thing you agree to when you own mules.

I've used them and you'd be surprised at the amount of grass they can eat thru that tiny hole.

One thing I might add is that if the mules are eating down to the bare dirt in fall and winter,you are over grazing the pasture.Basically you don't have enough grass. Maintaing this practice will result in you eiter haveing bare dirt in a year or two or a major infestation of weeds. Keeping from grazing 24/7 will extend that grass further into the fall

You mean those grazing muzzles...I use them on the fat ponies in paddocks with spring grass, at times. I hate them and so do they. A necessary evil in certain conditions. Would never use them in the winter and it's a bad idea to leave them on all the time. The muzzle band is hard and can rub. The ponies pull up the grass by the roots when it gets tough and that mess gets packed in the muzzle and sours quickly. You should pull the muzzles off daily and clean them out or the mud and crud accumulates into a stinking mess. And, when it's really hot and humid in the summer, think about covering your nose with something like that and how hard it would be to breathe. Grazing muzzles are not a cure all. They are only good under certain conditions. They are not meant to be put on and left on for days or weeks at a time without monitoring what is going on under there. Let them scalp the pasture. You don't want good pasture for mules that get fat. Let the weeds grow and shade out the grass. Unless you are cutting the pasture for hay, it doesn't sound like you need good grass. Bring the mules up every day and just tie them, groom, throw the harness on and off, to keep them civilized if you can't work them. Ideally you would work those mules to keep them in condition but please don't try to solve this problem by making them wear those muzzles all the time.

I use a grazing muzzle on a draft horse and a donkey. The draft is a very aggressive eater and goes through the bottom of the muzzles very quickly (the expensive type), so I got a special order, heavy duty one for her, and it has lasted 2 seasons so far.

Both she and the donkey wear theirs all the time except when they come in twice a day for fly spray and a teeny bit of pellets while the other two horses get a larger feeding. The donkey did get a bit of a rub on her lose last year from the attachment strap (I use the kind which attaches to my own halters, not the all-in-one kind), so I put one of those cheap halter fuzzies on the nosepiece and threaded the attachment strap between the fuzzy and the halter. That worked well.

I'm curious how you would keep two mules from playing with each others muzzles?? I've tried to use fly masks but got tired of having to hunt the pasture for them.

Where I used to work, we just had a bald paddock for the fatties. They were turned out in the lush pastures for the night once the other animals were brought in so they never had a whole pasture to themselves.

usually kept them in fair condition.

Grazying muzzles work. Put them on every afternoon and leave them on during the night. That is when the horse eats the most due to the moisture of the dew. Let them graze some during the day. If it is in spring and they are still eating too much, you need to use step in plastic posts and a solar charger, section off a section of the pasture to limit their amount of grazing. Also, don't leave it on day in and day out all the time. A horse needs some roughage to keep their digestive system healthy, so allow them to eat some, just put them on a diet, NEXT like all diets, you need to work them more, burn up the calories.

Also meant to mention you need to be practicing rotational grazing. That will keep your pasture healthy in the long run. Keep them in a section large enough that it takes two weeks for them to completely eat it down. That is the way to gauge the size, now only keep them there for a week. This will allow the other areas to rebound while they are grazing, but they don't have time to eat it to the ground either. I would use at least 3 to 4 sections. You can find a lot of info on the web on it, but you may also want tne area as a completely dry lot as well to use if they are getting too fat and only allow them short time periods to graze.