Crafty Connemara empties his treatball too quickly

VioletStripe

VioletStripe

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I have never seen a horse empty one so quickly :eek: All I do is add a couple of chopped carrots, and some high fibre cubes, takes me ages to put it in and he managed to empty it ridiculously quickly! :mad: :D Any tips to slow down the rate, or is it a hopeless case? He has a decahedron style one, which was going cheaply at my local tack store, if that makes any difference. Am contemplating going for a different style actually, if anyone knows of a better one? :rolleyes: I knew he was a clever 5yo but he can probably empty it quicker than I can ;) Anyone else have this problem? xx
 
My sisters old pony used to roll it up his bank with the hole pointing down and he would hold it there with his nose and wiggle dropping all the treats in a pile and then would roll it away and much on his treat pile :D
X
 
hi my horse is exactly the same-it takes 2 minutes of slamming the ball around the stable like a demented nutter and its empty, but i dont just rely on that for boredom he has flattened tub trugs to fling around and a jolly ball with a handle which he loves- also i put carrots hidden in his very small hole haynet and he has a huge lick which has to be in a special holder or its all gone in 1 night. hes very clever and very hungry! :D:D
 
Yes, my TB can empty a decahedron in minutes. Ive now bought him the Likit snackaball which is a bit trickier, takes him about half an hour to get half a mug of hifi nuts out. He bashes it about the minute he sees it and wont touch his hay or proper tea until its empty, absolutely loves it.
 
I have the same prob with Jay. he empties his treat ball really quickly and does it before he will eat his feed or his haynet.

he has also managed to undo several different types of clip on the bolt on his door, undo the bolt and let himself out. i have now added a kickbolt to the bottom of the door, that seems to have thwarted him!

I might try a different shape ball too.
 
I have the dechahedron after trying a ball with my mare. The ball kept rolling around if she shoved it hard enough, so treats would fly out even when she was eating the last bit!
Prefer the dechahedron type as it doesnt keep moving. I got my OH to glue in a smaller plastic circle in the hole to make it harder and slow her down, and works a treat :)
 
Glad to know mine's not the only one then :D It's crazy just how crafty he is, didn't phase him at all :rolleyes: Might invest in one of the Likit ones then, to see if that makes any difference. The decahedron one was only a temporary one anyway - was going for peanuts, and it's pink of all colours :eek: My poor gelding ;) Is there anything else I could put inside it that could slow it down? His high fibre nuts are relatively chunky anyway, but does anyone cut their carrots in a certain way or add anything else to it to slow it down? xx
 
Another user on here, Moomin1's mare is particularly crafty at this - she's managed to wangle it so she can pin it in the corner and nuzzle it so all the bits of carrot fall out! She tends to finish it in a few mins and whinny for more :D

Think Moomin has given up on trying to make it last longer :rolleyes:
 
Cobrastyle said:
Another user on here, Moomin1's mare is particularly crafty at this - she's managed to wangle it so she can pin it in the corner and nuzzle it so all the bits of carrot fall out! She tends to finish it in a few mins and whinny for more :D

Think Moomin has given up on trying to make it last longer :rolleyes:
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Hope my boy isn't reading this - he'll be picking up tips :eek: xx
 
Try a swede on a rope, harder to eat than from the floor, or pop something into a water bucket, basically anything that moves takes longer to eat, if it's boredom related get a large broom head, screw it to a wall as a scratching post, mine love it
 
Put some straw or chaff in there too. It will block the hole a bit and make it harder for the treats to fall out.

Also works as soundproofing if you put enough in lol!
 
Shove a load of straw in the hole, certantly slowed my connie down :cool:. He would have emptied it in about a minute if I hadn't done that. Just make sure you shove all the ends of the straw completely inside or the monkey will pull them out :mad:.
 
How would you go about soundproofing without any straw?

It just reminded me of when Meg has hers. She rams it against the stable door when it's empty and the YO ends up confiscating it as they live on site :o
 
flirtygerty - he doesn't like swede so won't touch it if it's hanging up :o he's also fussy, might I add :rolleyes: Great idea about the scratching post though, the YM will wonder what on Earth I'm up to :D

Didn't think about adding straw or chaff... will try giving that a go, see if that amuses him any longer :o xx
 
I used the decohedron ball and snack it with lid off, used to add sum hi fi. Lasts much longer. Think.it workers better in tge snack it balk as it seems to clog up the other one and they give up!
 
Boxers said:
he has also managed to undo several different types of clip on the bolt on his door, undo the bolt and let himself out. i have now added a kickbolt to the bottom of the door, that seems to have thwarted him!

I might try a different shape ball too.
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Watch him as we had one on last yard who took a few weeks and worked out that if he kicked it exactly on the other side of the door he could bounce it off, then undo clip and bolt. He has several pieces in place now!

Most of ours used to limbo sausage chains... now on a yard with 24/7 grazing, shetland will limbo half out of fence to graze but not bother escaping, 14hh pony will limbo straight under 3 or4 foot fencing though! So double fenced and stranded Fat Paddocks!

Pan
 
Leave the carrots in longer chunks than the hole is wide (You might already do this) and I added lots of chopped straw when one of mine was on box rest, certainly slowed him down :)
 
Right, tried it today! Cut carrots a little longer, and blocked it up with a few short strands of hay that were lying around from after his haynet. Poor thing seemed rather bemused when it didn't come tumbling out :D Thanks for the tips HHOers!! xx
 
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