Boredom Breakers - young horse

[DSDECKERT]

My 3 year old is bored....all three horses are in the pasture together, but Darius is very easily bored. I have a jolly ball out with them, but he isn't interested in it. Once in a great while, Jochi will play with him, but primarily, Jochi and Bianca are joined at the hip and poor Darius is alone.

I cannot get another horse, I only have 5 acres and no more room at the inn! So, suggestions on toys, anything that I can give him to help his boredom?

Thanks,
Deb

[lisa l aka marci]

Do you have a tree that you could hang something from - such as a small Jolly Ball- for him to play with? Barrel, large log, - does he like to pick things up at all.....I'd stay away from something with a treat in it as the other 2 might take it over......

Does he do anything to express that he is bored? (chewing on things etc)....that might give a hint for something he might like to do......

[Soltera]

Wonder if you could attach one of those "lickable" treat things to a tree, or even a fence post. Have to protect from the rain, I guess...?

There are those balls that slowly leak grain as they are nudged and pushed around, but that could really be a mess in a big field. HMMmmmm.....fill it with grass seed and auto-seed the pasture? :v:

Maybe he'd like to stand on things, like a goat. I've had ponies who are into that....like lisa l aka marci said, a log, maybe?

Put hay in a plastic barrel and cut 2 inch smooth holes all around, and have him work to get it out. Have to be really smooth holes to keep from decapitating his little manitee proboscus!

[Soltera]

How about water? Installing a fountain might be a tad expensive, huh? How about a kiddie wading pool to splash in? Except that this is winter. Okay. And he might break the pool and cut himself.

Set up a kennel run next to the fence (not too close) and let the local animal shelter keep their most hyper dogs there in the daytime, to let them run around - he could watch them, and maybe run with them. But that might give him bad habits around and toward dogs. Hmmmm.....

Hide treats around the pasture - really smelly ones like slightly over-ripe apples. Put them in bushes and tree branches and under flat rocks and hanging from trees (I really liked lisa l aka marci's ideas!!!).

There must be a CD somewhere of random horse whinnies you could set with a loudspeaker to play towards the barn or feeding area at one hour intervals for a minute or two? Just enough to keep him guessing?

Car tires! Put treats in car tires and have him root them out. No, the steel belting might come out and scratch him.

Hmmmmm....

[lisa l aka marci]

I know...isn't it a pain trying to think of things?

Ya know Deb - I have one of those hanging apple treat thingys in the barn somewhere...I'll send it to you if you want to try it - my girls totally ignore it!

[DSDECKERT]

Thanks for the suggestions, I actually have one of those "likit" treats - I was going to hang and see if he'd play with it.

He is doing some biting of wood - he's not cribbing or sucking, it's just bored. The big horses are such buds and they sort of pick on the poor guy - never mind the fact that he's the biggest of the three - he just doesn't know it yet!

I think part of the issue is I'm so busy at work and have been on the road a lot lately, that he hasn't been getting as much attention as usual from me. Mom's there, and they get cared for great - but maybe he misses me? (wishful thinking?) I'm going to spend lots of time w/him this weekend, and see if that helps too.

[CarolU]

Okay..So my pasture looks like a junk yard.

Empty and rinsed bleach or detergent bottles with some rocks in them work great as toys. You can tie a rope to the handle and they can bop themselves with them too. You can tie two together for a double bop (pretty funny!).

Bruiser also likes to play with the heavy rubber feed bins, road cones, old pieces of hose, heavy duty tarp or canvas, really just about anything that I find that is fairly durable. Boat bumpers are cheap and very hardy. He likes to push barrels around, but I only let him play with them in the round coral since they'd roll against my electric in the pasture.

[Soltera]

You can tie two together for a double bop (pretty funny!).

Pictures, Carol? Please? Send them to Leila, too, and make her laugh. A little. Gently. :D

[CarolU]

Pictures, Carol? Please? Send them to Leila, too, and make her laugh. A little. Gently. :D

hmmm, don't have any pictures or video of him with the boppers. The last I have is of him shredding my $42 play ball. :frown: He sure had fun, but I was ready to kill him.

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/23115BrusiedBall.jpg

I think hubby may just clobber him now though. Went out this morning and he'd broken off the PVC water feed-line to the trough. Cant' fix it until it warms up again, so looks like I'm stuck using the big hose for all the troughs.

[Finogirl]

At 3 he might be teething so bere that in mind too, I gave mine a knotted dog toy to chew on and wave around. Sqeaky dog toys are also good fun, but only give him 1 toy at a time and change daily so that he doesn't get bored of it too quicky.

[Soltera]

Well, hey, Deb Deckert, there you go! Get him a $42 play ball and some PVC pipe!!!

Sorry about the hosing CarolU - THAT can't be fun!

FG - was that a plastic toy or a stuffed animal? I have tons of toys my dogs are tired of, and would love to recyle them thusly, but worry about a horse getting hurt with them!

[Finogirl]

I bought some cheap sqeaky cuddly toys for teething chewing on....very good for my miniature stallion and he stamps on it too to make it squeak....or the plastic ones too, actually I don't see how they are going to hurt themselves and they can't really chew like a dog can so mainly they should be fine. See what happens is my advice and keep an eye on each one as they play with it as each horse may do something different with the toys.

[Linda Y]

Isn't it fun trying to entertain a smart young horse?
My colt, Jazz, was very much like Bruiser. I gave him cones, tarps, metal trash can lids, buckets, jolly ball, big plastic barrels, hose, tree limbs and everything I could think of that would be a toy. In spite of that, he still made his own out of whatever he could get his teeth on. He was very naughty.
You may want to try keeping a roll of hay where they have access all the time, too.

[jodiTowne]

I FREEZE SOME HAY IN A RUBBER TUB, THEN KICK IT OUT. tHE MINI SPENDS LOTS OF TIME CHEWING ON IT TO GET THE HAY. I put a few kernels of feed into a big juice bottle...again for the mini. Boxes work

[CarolU]

How do you freeze hay? Mines outside. I think it is already frozen. :crazy:

[lisa l aka marci]

I FREEZE SOME HAY IN A RUBBER TUB, THEN KICK IT OUT. tHE MINI SPENDS LOTS OF TIME CHEWING ON IT TO GET THE HAY. I put a few kernels of feed into a big juice bottle...again for the mini. Boxes work

I take it you put water in the tub andlet it freeze around the hay? hmmmm...if my guys get bored I'll keep that in mind! So far they entertain themselves pretty well....Marci has managed to tear down most of the 'back-back room' as we call it - their shelter! I'll have to take a picture some day....beore it falls down!

[Soltera]

I FREEZE SOME HAY IN A RUBBER TUB, THEN KICK IT OUT. tHE MINI SPENDS LOTS OF TIME CHEWING ON IT TO GET THE HAY. I put a few kernels of feed into a big juice bottle...again for the mini. Boxes work

That's incredibly creative! What a cool idea! (no pun intended....:v:....)