Stable boredom busters ideas

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Nickyhorse89

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Hello everyone

My mare is super bored in her stable which is causing her to box walk. She's not stressed as if I give her a net she's happy to chomp away whilst watching all the yard going ons. Plus when she's properly worked she doesn't do it. She's currently not in full work due to a bad back but given the green light to slowly start working her again. She currently has 2 nets, a treat ball, a bizzy bite (not all the time due to sugar), sometimes I put carrots in her net or she gets a veggie kebab. She guzzles everything so quickly that she has nothing to do for the remaining x amount of hours until she's turned out again. I've double netted small hole nets so they last longer but after a few days she just rips massive holes in them.

I don't really want to supply her with more food so any food free boredom buster ideas? She's out everyday but in at night. Overnight turnout isn't an option.

Thanks ☺
 
There's a good video on eponatv about this. Some behaviourists say that one of the main problems is not little food but lack of variety in food (e.g. horse has the option to choose its grass in the field), so little things like splitting hay into several nets (though keeping same amount) and hanging them in different places makes a difference, even better if some of those are small holes some big holes, or are different types of hay. To further that, you could soak some and not others, and/or I've heard that putting herbal teas such as peppermint or chamomile on some is nice and obviously calorie free.

I've also heard people say that putting in logs and pasting on different herbs (with water) can be nice too.

Of course there's the old swede on the string, but I'm not a massive fan of food frustration games.

Old broom heads attached to doors/walls can be nice as a self-grooming scratch pad.
 
Morgan123 said:
There's a good video on eponatv about this. Some behaviourists say that one of the main problems is not little food but lack of variety in food (e.g. horse has the option to choose its grass in the field), so little things like splitting hay into several nets (though keeping same amount) and hanging them in different places makes a difference, even better if some of those are small holes some big holes, or are different types of hay. To further that, you could soak some and not others, and/or I've heard that putting herbal teas such as peppermint or chamomile on some is nice and obviously calorie free.

I've also heard people say that putting in logs and pasting on different herbs (with water) can be nice too.

Of course there's the old swede on the string, but I'm not a massive fan of food frustration games.

Old broom heads attached to doors/walls can be nice as a self-grooming scratch pad.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I like the old broom idea, she loves a good scratch. Interesting about soaking the hay in tea, never heard of that one.
There's a wood nearby, I'll have a rummage for some logs. Any in particular?
 
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