Occupying in the stable - Box walking !! help please

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han4

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My pony has never been stabled before, and she is in every night all year round, she walks round and round in her stable, you can see in her bedding where she has walked in circles, it also makes her bed filthy! any muck is spread across all the shavings and mixed in! I need some stuff to occupy her, must be cheap and not something she could break (shes 5 so shes not very sensible) or be injured with, she has a full haynet every night, feed, and has a mineral lick, any opinions or info??:confused:
 
Can she see other horses, if not that could be why she is getting stressed, I am not sure stable toys will really help, try putting her hay into two or three different places she may prefer it so she can look out as she eats.
The best solution is probably a mirror, not cheap but if it works will soon pay for itself in money saved on bedding.
 
shes surrounded with horses that are also all stabled every night, also, i'd be scared of her rubbing on the mirror and cracking it or something! also - i don't think YO would agree with putting a mirror up
 
It is YO rules, she had been living out 24/7 for the past year at previous farm but just recently started bringing in on a night
 
Thats a shame. I think as its the YO's rules they should be flexible with you putting a mirror up ... these arent the same as our house hold mirrors so no fear of breaking them :)
 
Make sure she has so much hay she has leftover in the morning. Also make sure she has a routine. She will probably improve a bit when she gets to know the routine. Mine is terrible for the first few days then she gets better and only does laps at breakfast time and turn out time etc.
 
I'm afraid that I think that once a box-walker, always a box-walker. Mine has feed, company, good visibility from his stable etc etc. Makes no difference.
 
Not sure how far your YO is willing to stretch but we have, upon occassion put a sheep in the box with a manic box walker and it calmed them right down. Along with routine. They still walked but no where near as much - you still had 3/4 of a clean bed in the morning with a slight track rather than the trashed box and circlular pit to hell that there used to be.
 
Poor horse, seems to being used to being out & now in @ night...
Hang a full Suede from the corner of the box
Stable Mirror
and you can get the equine equivilent of a Kong for dogs! Stuffed with treats but they have to work at it to get them out so may keep her mind busy!
 
I have a box walker too! I feel your pain! Don't get the horselyx tho! I tried one, he ate too much, went crazy off the sugar and the bed was worse! I make sure he won't run out of haylage and I last see him at about 5-6pm and then down at 6am my boy is stabled the majority of the time so I split everything up. He has swedes and carrots hung up frequently. I put carrots in his hay net. If you can hang stuff in your horses way, food or even plastic bags! Just to make it a bit harder to run round in laps. X
 
Make sure there's always enough hay left in the morning. But, if that fails find somewhere that does suit her. Horses should learn to stable, but if they stress overnight, imo it means you need to build up slowly to it.
 
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