Box rest problems!

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gemmahodgkinson

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I have had my mare for 2 months and after month 1 she fractured her leg and is now on box rest. she is really bored and I have tried boredom breakers but she does not seem interested, and has decided to eat everything in sight instead including a headcollar, a lead rope and 2 nylon haynets. now nothing is left near her just incase, and Im running out of ideas to keep her occupied. any tips, help?!
 
My mare was on box rest for 2 months recently so know what you are going though.

Try putting carrots, apples etc on string and hanging up in the middle of the stable if poss so it can really swing.

I put half of my mare's feeds into her decaheron so it would take longer for her to eat.

Could you divide her hay into 2 or 3 haynets round the stable, hide carrots in her hay.

With mine I gave her lots of forage hay, haylege, readigrass and hifi as she only seemed happy when she knew she had food!

I also picked her buckets of grass- provided you feed it to them within 15minutes its safe (thats what I was told and never had any probs).it would take me 5 minutes to pick and 5 seconds for it to be eaten lol.

Also spends as much time as poss with your horse- grooming etc and if you can move her to a different stable while you muck out etc so she has a change of sceenry

Hope that has given you a few ideas. Good Luck!
 
I have been throught box rest very recently too with my TB.

She loves her snack-a-ball and used to have that every morning filled with nuts. She hated anything hanging from stable so that was a no no- im sure she thought anything hanging would kill her.

The decathlon balls are similer but dont move about to easily and half the fun for my horse is the chase.

A swede crilled throught the core they seem to like hung from a ring.
 
I have a few ideas too:
Try feeding plenty of hay in small-holed haynets so they take her longer to eat, and if you wanted to make them last even longer, you could put it inside another small-holed haynets. Try not not leave her too long without anything to eat, and you could give her different typres of forage to keep her interested. I find that dodson and horrel 'just grass' is fantastic as you can just give them a huge bucket full to keep them eating. Mirrors are good too and the dodecahedron already mentioned. I used to pick a bucket of grass for mine as a treat and he loved it. You could also dry out some nettles and dandelion leaves, or her favourite weeds/herbs. Hope this helps.
 
I hate box rest - Jack was box rested for 9 months this time last year! Like all the rest of the posts, a snack a ball, a haynet with v small holes (Jack's was huge and used to take him most of day to eat) I used to hide polos, and carrots and apples etc in it. I too invested in a stable mirror and he loved it! It has teeth marks all the way down it now where I think he's tried to groom it! Slices of apples in her water bucket so they can play apple bobbing and I used to hide his carrots and apples in the corner of Jack's banks - towards the end of his box rest, as soon as I let him in his stable (once I'd done all my jobs) he used to head straight to his banks and find his treats - terrific memory horses! Lots and lots of grooming and attention, I used to take Jack for grass in hand (in a chifney though I might add) and this helped him to, morning and evening and sometimes for up to 30 mins at a time, just gives them time out from the stable. Does she have an outside stable? Jack was inside inititally but luckily managed to get him an outside box, fresh air, sunshine and he could see what was going on - made the world of difference! Spillers Readigrass too - he loved! Hang on in there, it will all be worth it in the end! Also, don't forget to take her to see other horses, over the stable doors of course, does she have any best friends? perhaps let her groom them over the door - horsey contact is important for them when they box rested.

Good luck, hope this helps!
MX
 
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