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Ways to Enrich Your Horse ’ s Environment
By Amanda Martin
Horses are naturally inquisitive and enjoy exploring their environment . They are excellent at foraging for food , spend approximately 75 % of each 24h period grazing and move their feet every 3-5 seconds when grazing . Being stabled removes these natural behaviours however , we can take measures to return the ability to perform natural horse behaviour by enriching their environment with horse toys that you can find or make yourself at home .
Below are 7 ways to enrich your horses environment ( stabled , field or barn kept ) with various home designed horse toys and ideas to enhance normal horse behaviour :
1 . Feed hay off the ground with more than one pile of hay .
2 . Hang fruit and vegetable kebabs or hide fruit and vegetables in the bedding and in / under objects .
3 . Put apples in the water bucket for apple bobbing ( your horse may have to be taught to bob for apples ).
4 . Hang soft drinks bottles with holes in , put food pellets inside so that the horse has to nudge the bottle to knock the pellets out . Drinks bottles with holes in can also be used to put flavoured water in .
5 . Traffic cones stuffed with hay . Leave some poking out of the top so the horse can eat from top or they can turn it over and eat the hay . Traffic cones can also be used to hide things under .
6 . Items / treats can be placed on ledges or up high ( in trees in the field ) and the horse has to pull them off .
7 . Hang up twigs / branches with the leaves still on . The horse will eat the leaves . The twig / branch can be used again with raisins stuck to it using treacle or syrup .*
And some games you can play with your horse :
• Old towels make good toys for horses . They can mouth them , throw them around etc . if you tie them to something , they can manipulate them to untie them .
• Paper bags can be used to hide treats inside . The horse has to unravel or tear open the bag to get the
10 • Walking On treats . Make sure you remove the torn paper away after this one !!*
• You can make a toy box for your horse . Many things make good toys and food can be hidden inside them . Be sure to vary the items in the box regularly .*
• Cardboard box game ... 101 things to do with a cardboard box . With this game , the horse gets a reward every time ( s ) he does something novel with the box .*
• Plastic drain pipes with holes cut in them can be hung on the stable wall . Treats are placed inside the pipe and the horse has to nudge one end of the pipe to get the treats out .
This list is not exhaustive and with a little bit of imagination , as well as watching the types of toys your horse likes , you can make the stable environment a positive place to be .
If your horse is under veterinary supervision or care , ensure your vet is happy with the use of treats and toys .
• Don ’ t give your horse access to all of their toys at one time . Rotating the items given in the stable is key to ensuring the toy does not become ‘ furniture ’ and the horse tires of it .
• Some of the items should not be left in with the horse for safety reasons and your horse should only be allowed to play with them under supervision . These are marked with an asterix .
• If your horse eats cardboard and paper , you may wish to avoid the toys that involve those items .
• Once your horse figures out the toys that easily yield treats , the complexity of the tasks to be completed to obtain a treat can be increased .