I have a brilliant 5 year old gelding who loves puzzles. He has figured out his stall latch, so I have to tie it closed with a trailer tie in addition to latching it. This guy has no fear, will approach anything new with curiosity. He needs a toy, something to keep his mind busy. Any suggestions? He lives in a large paddock with a run in shed, so he is not stalled
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Jolly ball maybe? My horse finds them boring, so I donated hers to the 4yo gelding across from her and he loved it! He kicks it around, picks it up and swings it.
\There are also balls with small holes in them that you fill with treats and when the horse shakes the ball treats fall out. They’re supposed to be good for bored horses.
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We’ve had the best luck with the Amazing Graze
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My 2-year-old has a jolly ball, jolly ball type with a rope through it, hay ball, one of the big inflatable balls with a cover, treat ball. Some are stall toys, some are pasture toys.
Also, cones are a good one.
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A hay ball! My gelding loves it. I got one of these dog joys and I tied it in his stall, stuffed it with hay and treats, and he goes to town on it!
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My horse on stall rest has a large rope toy for dogs with knots. He likes playing with it, and his neighbor in the next stall will play tug through the divider bars with him.
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In my limited opinion, it’s the variety of toys that keeps a horse entertained. Any single toy left out for a period of time starts to be ignored. Rotating a selection of toys for a few days and then swapped out for another seems to create interest. Sometimes the simplest items work vs expensive equine marketed toys. Some faves at my barn: the rubber dog toy @rhershock posted, rubber traffic cone, old flat back bucket (with handle REMOVED), hay net or pillow, hanging plastic milk or laundry jug w/couple rocks inside to rattle, etc…
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Some horses really like squeaky dog toys. They will smoosh it up against walls to get the noise.
The giant blow up yoga type balls are usually fun for them, but some like to jump onto them and will pop them: so you may end up going through a bunch
Mine really enjoys frozen ice chunks with treats frozen inside.
They also enjoy destroying rubber feed pans.
Hanging LikIt? I’ve seen some wall mount ones that swivel too.
I’ve gotten chewed out for this on another thread but I have to mention: the treat balls that rattle drove me INSANE when I worked at a boarding barn. It was like a fad, one person got one and then everyone had one. Well, the boarders (who I absolutely adored otherwise) would fill up the treat balls and then leave for the afternoon, leaving me to listen to the things all afternoon. It was cute the first couple of days and absolutely unbearable after that. I was not the only barn worker annoyed, and it got to the point where boarders who came later would complain about the boarders who came earlier’s treat balls… 
Mine aren’t really inclined to play with anything. They would much prefer a small hole hay net or just to hang their heads in the aisle. But I do prefer the more intellectual types 
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yes this is what i was talking about!
I bought several of these for a horse on stall rest - I’d leave one overnight and the barn staff would toss one in during morning chores.
You can cut the little rubber tabs in the opening so larger treats can fit through, but it’s not large enough for alfalfa cubes or actual hay.
I also have a Shires treat ball that works great and can accept larger treats.
I concur with @Lusoluv - my horses ignored the treat balls after a while so I pulled them out. I tossed one back in a few weeks ago and my older horse was obsessed. One of the barn dogs left a tiny jolly ball toy in his stall yesterday and my horse was playing with it, so I left it in there as well.
I started taking those balls out of the stalls as soon as the boarders left. Our barn has the stalls surrounding the indoor ring, and trying to teach in the indoor, especially in the winter when the horses were fresh and spooky, with those things rattling around was impossible. I’d put them back when I was done for the night.
We currently have one boarder who has some sort of toy similar to the hay balls but she puts carrots in it. Her horse loves to eat the carrots and then carry the ball around his stall squishing it and making the air whistle in and out of it. Another one that sometimes loses his privileges if he’s being too noisy during lessons!
I agree with the poster above who said it’s the variety of toys that makes a difference. You just have to try a bunch and see what they like best
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I really like the Jolly Hay Ball! It’s basically a Jolly Ball crossed with those Hol-ee balls used for hay. You can hang it up and it’s got spots for putting carrot pieces and apple slices in too. I like to mix in alfalfa timothy hay pellets within the hay in the ball so a couple fall out with each bite of hay, very fun!
luv it!
i had a smart busy Morgan gelding incarcerated in a stall 22 hrs/day. I had a big thick rope hanging from the rafter that i knotted every night for him. BIG hunking knot over knot over knot. Almost every morning it was hanging straight. It was challenging for both of us…(me to make a knot he couldn’t undo, and him to undo it anyway)
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They are the BEST!
I was recently at the National Zoo and quite a number of their animals had them, too.
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My question is, how do you get the horse to figure out there are treats inside?
They can usually smell them and figure it out quickly. If they don’t realize it on their own, I roll it for them until a treat falls out, then they are interested.
