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Managing the mental health of a horse on dry lot

If you are allowed to sink a post, give her a tether ball and a jolly ball that is too big to roll under the fence.

Somewhere on youtube, there is a video of a horse entertaining himself by playing with one of those squeaky rubber chickens. I cannot see my own horse tolerating such foolishness, but…

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Do they clean her paddock?

@eightpondfarm. I clean, self care, so yes her run is cleaned daily. Why?

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@kaya842. Thank you for your kind words. I truly appreciate them.

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oh, just an aside. Because when you said she pooped outside i just wondered whether the stable hands only cleaned her stall or if they did the pen too.

I concur with those suggesting offering toys. A large ball that won’t go out of the paddock? Is there a run-in that you can hang something off of? My horse likes to nose-push over mounting blocks so I might add a mounting block. I’d definitely add a large ball for my horse.

You’ll need to show your horse how to play with the toy. I gave my horse a jolly ball (with handles) once and he said “meh”. My friend uses jolly balls with handles with her horses and mini-donkey and said she had to show them how to play with it. Her mini mule plays with it constantly now. She posted vids on facebook. Yep, the little guy LOVES it.

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we had to restrict one of our mares who foundered, she spent two weeks in cross ties standing in ice water, recovered nicely with no rotation (we had x-rays from previous years that we had just in case we ever needed a base for reference)

But to entertain her during this time she had her fan and a TV …her favorite TV show was the old “Mission: Impossible” series as there was a lot of action with quick changes

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Oh Clanter!!! :rofl: Quite some time ago I remember a thread where I said I wanted to be reincarnated as one of your horses… Now I’m convinced! :rofl: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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She’s got a jolly ball out there, which she ignores. I have a large play ball, I don’t know how much she’d use it, I asked about putting it out there and was told “so long as hot wire doesn’t come down”. From what I’ve seen she noses it around, she’s not the type to jump and leap on it like some do.

Anyway, I put some hay out clear in the back of the paddock, in dribbles and drabs for her to find. Her water is outside not in the stall. The hay I keep in her stall is a mixed grass that she’s not overly fond of, she walks to the very back to find the “good hay” her favorite which is timothy.

Right now it’s mud season in Oregon. That is not helping.

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Can you take her out more - even for hand walks or hand grazing?

Everybody enjoys a change of scene.

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so I expect you want the air conditioned stall that we had set up for my daughter’s horse who was allergic to fly bits

The mare in the photo was a very special horse, she was loved by many who she freely gave her heart to.

As she aged we had her in a separate barn and paddock that was Hers. The day she crossed the bridge in her 28th year I had just completely stripped her stall, rebedded with her favorite large flake savings then went on with other things. A few hours later I noticed she had gone in to lay down for a nap. Later, checking on her she was still down so I checked on her … she had passed away. No struggle as nothing was disturbed in the bedding … thinking that she was “still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-trees.”

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Now I know nothing about fencing, but could you run an additional line of something between posts below the existing railing/wire to prevent the hay play ball from rolling away? Temporary enough that the barn won’t mind you putting it up, but also not so much that it’s unsafe.

I recently tried my mare with one of those treat dispenser balls (I think Shires does one) and she LURVED it. Actually, all the ponies out in her paddock did so I had to remove it as fights were starting to break out over it :roll_eyes:

If it isn’t too large of a dry lot, it might not cost much or be too much trouble to make such a modification so you could reintroduce toys that will encourage her to forage and work for her food a little more.

I’ve also seen metal posts or T-bars covered with PVC piping driven into the ground to hang additional slow-feed haynets from, just to get horses moving around a little more.

I do agree though, those “more suitable” barns are total unicorns. After 20 years of boarding, I’ve come to realize there’s always going to be something that’s lacking. In this case it sounds like you can work around the things that aren’t or can’t be offered where you are presently which is a good thing!

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Absolutely. Some of my former barn mates have not been so fortunate and have or are already looking for somewhere else. I’ve been a long time boarder myself (30+ years) and in the last few years I’ve come across situations I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Things I never saw or even heard about in my earlier horse days.

At any rate, you all have good ideas, some of which I’m already doing. As for the fencing thing, I’m thinking about that and will have to talk to my BO’s about it.

And yes @clanter, I want the air conditioned stall. :joy: