EMS friendly enrichment

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lozzles

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Having had a mild laminitis bout for the first time this winter I'm needing to keep my Ems pony in a good size pretty much bare of grass pen this spring. Normally he's in a bigger area with a muzzle.

Hes not ridden due to hock arthritis although I will be doing some light lunging. Does anyone have any nice enrichment ideas? He already has a wooden slip tail to our other horse so they can interact. I have little hay ball rubber net things but those go very quickly.

Also does anyone use ground haynets? There's no where easy to tie a net in his pen and would like to stretch out his hay eating.
 
water buffet and herb garden? I’ve seen some people plant the herbs in an old trough or similar then put rigid wire mesh over it so when the herbs grow the horses can nibble the ends through the wire but don’t destroy the plants so they keep growing.
 
I made mine a track around his half acre field, that seemed to help a bit - I think he moved more than when he was on a little pen space.

I've not used ground haynets as mine was shod in front at the time, but if yours is fully barefoot I can't see any reason not to try it.

Could you also take him for in-hand walks?
 
Track rather than dry lot if feasible, if not slaloms of fencing so they have to zigzag get them moving more surprisingly effectively; space hopper or ball; logs/branches; straw; ground nets of soaked hay spread around; cow itching brush (brain fart on the proper name sorry).
 
I have an old horslyx holder which can't be tipped over, and I put a couple of salt licks in it and scatter a handful of dried herbs around them. Keeps mine busy for a bit and you can do different herb mixes etc. Also agree on the track, keeps mine moving - put soaked hay in piles around it, water at the furthest point, and other things at intervals so they have to keep moving.
 
I will ultimately try the track but at the moment there's too much grass coming through for him to be safe with it. Once the spring grass eases off I will. He has a kind of L shaped bend at the moment any way as it goes round the shelter which helps. For ground nets do you just use normal haynets well tied up?

Cow brush is a good idea. Any ideas how to keep a ball from rolling out of electric fencing or just pop it back in when I'm down? He's a monkey normally with electric fencing but fingers crossed so far four strands and close together posts on mains is doing the trick. Big horses are much easier!

In hand walks are tricky as he's a companion for my old boy who'd go nuts if he went out of sight 🤦‍♀️. At 24 I feel the old boy shouldn't be upset really!

Any particular type of logs I should aim for?
 
Mine is confined to a small pen area at the moment. Lami app is on red. Try water buffet. Celery scattered about. Simple systems sell brick thingies and other suitable feed. Worth looking on tgeir web site.
 
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