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Bordom with stalled horses.

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Imperfections Inspire

PostPosted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:39 pm


I know I have like 23149 different topics in the EoG, but I have yet another horsey problem.

My horse, as I have posted before, is a 7 year old Belgian X. He is in his stall for most of the day because he is a bully to the other horses (chased a couple horses out of the paddock) and cannot go out with them anymore. he gets out for about 2-4 hours a day. The rest of the day he is in his stall.

He gets very bored in his stall. For the most part he gets hay to keep him happy. He is very smart and has learned that when he paws on the door it makes a really annoying noise and people give him more hay to keep him calm. The problem is he is gaining weight from all the hay he gets. We put rubber mats on the inside of the stall (the whole lower 3 feet) so that it is not annoying when he bangs on the wall and people won't feed him as much. Well he got the idea that he doesn't like the mats and tore 2 of them down with his teeth. and then started kicking the wall between him and the other horse, making the board bend, and they had to replace that wall.

So pretty much my horse is an extremely smart and bored destruct-o-horse and people feed him hay because it keeps him busy and happy. He really LOVES food.

So I need a way to keep him busy and happy, I am pretty open to trying most things. I was thinking I could put up a hay net with small openings so that it would slow down his hay intake and keep him busy with less hay. I also though of using one of those LiKit Boredom Breakers, but I think that my horse would take it down pretty quick.

He has a Jolly Ball in his stall and he doesn't touch it.

Bottom Line:
My horse gets bored being in his stall. He is destructive in his stall. we have been feeding him hay to keep him busy, and he is getting fat from all the hay.

What do you think about hay nets?
What about a LiKit?
Do you have any other suggestions to either keep him busy or slow his hay consumption?
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:47 pm


Likits can be great, but yeah, he'd probably go through it pretty fast.

Do you have the option of feeding him a lower quality hay during the day? Not like, moldy or dusty, but something like bluegrass straw, that has almost no nutritional content but gives him something to munch on? That could help solve your problem.

I've also seen people hang milk jugs on the walls of their horses stalls for them to play with. They seem to play with them more than the jolly balls, not really sure why.

If you do get a hay net (I'm not sure if it would really slow him down that much, but it might) make sure that it's tied high enough that, when empty, he won't be able to get a foot through it.

AriaStarSong


Imperfections Inspire

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:32 am


AriaStarSong
Likits can be great, but yeah, he'd probably go through it pretty fast.

Do you have the option of feeding him a lower quality hay during the day? Not like, moldy or dusty, but something like bluegrass straw, that has almost no nutritional content but gives him something to munch on? That could help solve your problem.

I've also seen people hang milk jugs on the walls of their horses stalls for them to play with. They seem to play with them more than the jolly balls, not really sure why.

If you do get a hay net (I'm not sure if it would really slow him down that much, but it might) make sure that it's tied high enough that, when empty, he won't be able to get a foot through it.
Yeah, food seems to be the only thing that keeps his intrest. there are special hay nets with smaller holes so that it takes longer for them to go through it.

I know what you are saying with the hay net thing though, I once took a horse to a show who got the hay net caught on his hoof because it was too low. so I am really careful about such things.
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