ponyparty
Well-Known Member
Hi all - after your expert advice and good ideas again!
I'm soon to be moving Bruce to a new yard, where they have hard standing turnout areas so I can keep him off grass, but he can still go outside and move around.
There is also grass turnout, which is all dead and brown at the moment. The grass turnout has a few small trees so there is shade, and obviously the nice dead brown grass to munch on to keep him entertained. Unlike my current yard, this place is not an ex dairy farm and has not been fertilised so I'm hoping he'll cope with this grass better anyway.
But the hard standing areas have no shelter. This means I'll either need to 1. ask to erect some sort of shelter - but what? Not sure I'd be allowed to anyway, nobody else there has; 2. keep him in during the hottest part of the day, so he's not baking in the sun; or 3. let him on the grass turnout (muzzled) during the day so he can seek shelter in the natural shade.
Also - if I just put a bucket of hay in the hardstanding pen, he'll stand there and eat that, and won't be moving around. Defeats the object somewhat! So any ideas for fun ways of keeping him entertained and moving around would be great. I currently feed soaked hay from a bucket on the floor as I'm avoiding haynets, to try and keep his back elongated to help with kissing spines rehab; but would prefer him to trickle feed and always have something to munch on.
So - split hay into several small buckets? Treat ball and alternatives (he's clever and empties a treat ball very quickly!)? Anyone have any other bright ideas, preferably cheap, suitable for an EMS/laminitis prone sick note of a horse?
I'm soon to be moving Bruce to a new yard, where they have hard standing turnout areas so I can keep him off grass, but he can still go outside and move around.
There is also grass turnout, which is all dead and brown at the moment. The grass turnout has a few small trees so there is shade, and obviously the nice dead brown grass to munch on to keep him entertained. Unlike my current yard, this place is not an ex dairy farm and has not been fertilised so I'm hoping he'll cope with this grass better anyway.
But the hard standing areas have no shelter. This means I'll either need to 1. ask to erect some sort of shelter - but what? Not sure I'd be allowed to anyway, nobody else there has; 2. keep him in during the hottest part of the day, so he's not baking in the sun; or 3. let him on the grass turnout (muzzled) during the day so he can seek shelter in the natural shade.
Also - if I just put a bucket of hay in the hardstanding pen, he'll stand there and eat that, and won't be moving around. Defeats the object somewhat! So any ideas for fun ways of keeping him entertained and moving around would be great. I currently feed soaked hay from a bucket on the floor as I'm avoiding haynets, to try and keep his back elongated to help with kissing spines rehab; but would prefer him to trickle feed and always have something to munch on.
So - split hay into several small buckets? Treat ball and alternatives (he's clever and empties a treat ball very quickly!)? Anyone have any other bright ideas, preferably cheap, suitable for an EMS/laminitis prone sick note of a horse?
