Stable Toys - do they really help?

[Kenzo]

Well apart from the balls that drop out the treats, what do you think to the other boredom breakers for example the Likits that hang down or the those balls with the lickable inserts that spin round that you fix to the wall.

Do they bust their boredom? or do you think horses find them extremely irritating when trying to lick/eat at something that they cant really get to or because its either spinning around or swinging around ....which then clonks them on the face every so often?

I suppose with the balls they get what they initiall set out to get so perhaps their better than say the ones that hang up?


Just wondered what your views are and how many people use them....or bought them but have taken them down or found that the horse cant be bothered with them? or indeed love them!

 

[toomanyhorses26]

Mine just ignore the bordom breaker ,love the balls that they roll around but the favourite even though it's not really a stable toy is the horslyx respiratory lick but it is the most messy and disgusting thing to get off of their faces !!!

 

[black_horse]

i did a study on the use of a rollable equiball snack ball in the relief of the weaving stereotypic behaviour. i found that the introduction of the ball reduced the episodes of the behaviour being recorded but the horses became reliable upon the ball, with its absense causing anxiety and increased episodes of weaving!

 

[Ziggy_]

I've always thought of likits as the horse equivalent of junk food - surely if a poor doer spends three hours a night licking a likit they'd be better off spending those three hours eating hay? To me its like a kid who fills up on sweets instead of eating their dinner as they are just full of sugar and flavourings.

Perhaps they are of benefit to horses on box rest to break up the day, but I don't like them - unnatural feeding position, full of sugar, and I've walked into one or two when they've been hung up in stable doorways which really hurts

That said, all the horses on my yard have them and love them, except mine who refuses to touch them.

 

[fine_and_dandy]

Bailey is in atm (although we are now allowed turnout

) and as it has been 11 weeks now, I have just got him a toy to see how he gets on with it.

I didn't get one of the balls where the treats come out, but the big red jolly apple. He seems to like it, he's been biffing it about and pulling the rope. It's another stimulus for him. I'm looking for a couple more that can be hung up, but don't want anything that has a lick or treat which contains loads of sugar. They seems pretty hard to find and I'm wary about making him too fizzy when he has been a little difficult to handle of late - although this is getting better I'm happy to say.

My friend has one of the balls for her cob and she puts herby treats in it for him and he will quite happily bop it round his stable, and doesn't give up until he has all the treats out.

My friend also used to have a red treat ball which we didn't put anything in but used to kick to her then foal and my now yearling

it was brilliant, so much fun. We had very funny games of "pounce on the ball" and a form of footie.

I think if you buy the right one for your horse they can be pretty good

 

[PopStrop]

I bought a likkit to hang in my pony's stable. I initially hung it in the middle of the stable, however as said pony is only 36ins high, it had to have a really long rope for her to reach it, and with 3/4ft of rope those things get a bl**dy dangerous swing on them!
After watching her trying to knock herself out on it, I put it against a wall to reduce the swing - which means most of it's gone within a few hours as she can get her teeth into it!
I wouldn't use one of the spinnable ones personally, I've heard too many stories of horses trapping their tongues down the side & injuring themselves.
She's got a jolly ball that she takes her temper out on occasionally

 

[charlyan]

My horse cribs if he gets bored and whilst I wouldn't say that having stable toys makes a big difference to his behaviour, I think they do make his time in the stable more interesting for him.

He has a largely ignored scented(?) hanging red apple that he only plays with if its laced with molasses, etc but he loves his Snack-a-ball which he gets every night with half his pony nut ration in it. He goes daft over it as soon as he sees it.

He also loves the codlivine manger mates (identical to likits)- last one lasted two nights. (He was smeared in sticky caramel both mornings from his mouth to his ears!!

) but he will not touch any flavour of likit.

 

[Pancakes]

those likits taste really nice especially the cherry ones

 

[NotAnotherChestnut]

My older horse, Gertie, lives for food and loves her red kick around treat ball/dispenser. Though she got too good at extracting the carrots/treats so I stuff a bit of hay in there too which makes it harder for the treats to come out... Yes, I'm an evil person! Still, it's empty every morning so she must manage..

On an aside - they do make a horrendous racket when kicked with foce around the stables..

 

[catdragon]

My mare is a spoilt brat and has a little likit boredom breaker that she generally gets 1 little likit a week in..not the spinning one. I don't give her the full size likits as she devours them in two bites...literally

She has her pony nuts in the snack a ball to make her tea last longer and if given the ball before her tea will ignore her tea to empty the ball !! She's very adept at it, just rolls it back and forth about a foot or so, but she adores it.

At night before I leave her she gets a decahdron with chopped carrots... again she adores it.

On the whole, they have given my mare a lot of pleasure whilst she was box rested for injury in 2007, so I am loathe to get rid of them from her routine as she really does enjoy them.

 

[Kenzo]

Mackenzie has a decahedron ball which I have to put in the field before his field mates come in, otherwise he'll chew the ball cocks of the water troughs (doesn't go down very well with our YO

) he used to have it in his stable but I banned it, because he made such a mess of his bed pawing it all around.

He does get rather irritable though when he can hear the horse that he's stabled next to with hers....which I guess is a bit cruel I suppose but he gets his bucket feed at the same time to soften the blow.

I think he'd walk of cliff edge for his snack ball

but I actually question myself and wonder if that is one of the reason he gets grumpy when he's eating, could the build of frustration that he's learnt from having his ball when he was younger every night, just a thought.

I did think about getting him a likit but someone said why what is the point of them, horses must find them so dam annoying and after thinking about it I kinda thought well yes I suppose they could be to some horses, guess it depends on the horse and their character.

 

[miss_c]

Genie gets her snackaball every evening after she has her feed, with about 5 treats and her nuts in. The second she's finished her feed she's at the door waiting for it.

Likits don't work so well for her... The only place I have to hang it is from the side partition (it's that or the light fitting, which I don't think is a good idea!) so she just pins it and chews the likit. They last her about 5 minutes! Plus they're all sugar, so now once I week I'll hollow a way through a swede and put that on it for her, which she LOVES... again though, it only lasts her about 5 minutes...

 

[sachak]

my horse seems to have given up on his there are various chunks missing so im guessing he thinks of them more as teeth sharpeners than lickits!!!

i have the licket just like the one hanging from a string and the rotating ball which is fixed to the wall aswell as the ball with treats coming out of it - which the ned seems to prefer

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Try some apples in their water buckets - bobbing apples is a fine art!

 

[hellybelly6]

My horse had a ball thing, bounced it around the stable for 5 mins, got fed up with it and stood on it until it was flat.

Actions speak louder than words!!

I dont think he liked it.

Had a likit hanging up, he had perfected the art of getting it into his mouth whole and crushing it to break it and then gobbled the whole thing down in less than 5 mins.

He liked the taste,but found it boring and irritating when it hit him in the face.

 

[welsh_mare]

HI, i bought my horse back in may and he is awful in the stable, box walks round and walks backwards taking his bed back, so that he is left with no bed on the floor.

It was all piled at the back, no matter how much bedding i put down, tried different toys that he used but still wasn't happy.

Then at christmas time i bought him a stable mirror, oh my god how happy is he, his stable takes a 1/4 of the time it used to muck out and when he comes in from the field he says hello to his "friend". Best thing i have ever bought, better than any toy!!!.

 

[Kenzo]

Thanks for your feedback guys