occupying the stabled horse

helenhorse

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 March 2008
Messages
1,661
Location
Uranus
Visit site
Hi, when i bring my horses in, in the day when i ride them, im always thinking of ways to keep them thinking, occupied and generally doing something fun that they enjoy. I am aware that a small holled haynet is good, apple in water bucket and licks. During feed time, for one of my horses i also create a bucket of layers between sprinkled feed and bits of hay, so she has to rut through the hay to get at the feed inbetween which generally takes up a fair amount of time...has anyone got any other occupying things for them? or home made fun ojects, games etc like these???
grin.gif
 
Carrots in haynets and dechedron(sorry if thats spelt wrong) ball with lots of herbal treat in so as not to send them hyper off sugary treats. Stable mirrors are also good.
 
My mare quite likes a football and ponio loves chasing a swede around the stable. The treat balls can be good but my TBx decided to try and eat the whole ball
crazy.gif
 
my horse will probably be hanging from the light bulb with a mirror in with her hhaha
grin.gif

might try the swede thing, wnt they pull all the carrots out really fast though, i would have thought>?
confused.gif
 
Nope don't get the carrots out really quick you fill the haynet 1st and i put the carrots completely flat in the haynet so not sticking out and my horse spends ages trying to get them out lol maybe my horse is silly!
 
Echo every reply so far
I had a horse on 9 month box rest, so had to do all i could to keep him sane
crazy.gif
luckily for me he didn't mind being in, and only got depressed towards the end.

We had the funny shape treat toy, that i cant spell (dec something), swedes, loose and tied to string, carrots in haynets (very popular) and a stable ball, but he wasn't too bothered with that

I know mirrors are good but have never had one.
I also used to spend a lot of time with him, grooming etc. It was a change for him to come out and be tied up outside and groomed. Just a change of scenery. That of course was different than your circumstances.
 
Dont know about the decathlon thing but I have just the plain rolling ball one which drops cubes out slowly as they roll it about - one of mine loves it.

Otherwise, all mine love turnips - I get a large load from my local farmer (for very cheap) and they each get 1 daily during the season for them. Just leave it loose and dont cut it up.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Echo every reply so far
I had a horse on 9 month box rest, so had to do all i could to keep him sane
crazy.gif
luckily for me he didn't mind being in, and only got depressed towards the end.

We had the funny shape treat toy, that i cant spell (dec something), swedes, loose and tied to string, carrots in haynets (very popular) and a stable ball, but he wasn't too bothered with that

I know mirrors are good but have never had one.
I also used to spend a lot of time with him, grooming etc. It was a change for him to come out and be tied up outside and groomed. Just a change of scenery. That of course was different than your circumstances.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, my horse also did 9 months box rest. Carrots in haynets, swede on string, doubling haynets, using treat balls, apples in water buckets and lickits all came in handy but she was still pretty fed up in the last few months.
 
I'm guessing the funny-shaped treat-ball thingy is called a 'decahedron' cos that means 'ten sides' (hence the funny shape)?

We try to stop my daft Arab stally cartwheeling round his box and generally causing mayhem by giving him a horseball to play with - the big ones with handles. His favourite game is to grab the horseball in his teeth, stand bolt upright and punch at it with his front feet, like a boxer with a punchbag. Sometimes he dunks it in his water-trough first, so he can spray water everywhere when he boxes at it.

Yes I know -
crazy.gif
crazy.gif
crazy.gif
- but it keeps him amused!
wink.gif
tongue.gif
 
Top