One of my horses is a very curious, mouthy, interested horse. He reminded me of this yesterday when I was trying to set up a “horse agility” course for him and he kept messing up all of my obstacles by playing with them while I was setting them up. He picked up the tarp and carried it around, tipped over the bucket, top to bottom and then bottom to top, and investigated everything else.
He is also very interested in textures, and investigates (mouths) anything that is sticking out of anything else, and was really interested in the wool flocking that was out while his saddle was being re-flocked. He kept mouthing that, and making a face, then mouthing it again, over and over again.
He lives with another horse so his life isn’t terrible, but I think he might be happier if he had some things to play with. But he’s also very destructive, and I don’t want him to actually eat the tarp, or break the bucket and then step on the shards, etc. He has eaten Christmas lights twice, so I don’t have a lot of trust in his common sense. And he’s broken plastic buckets that were left in a stall with him.
Are there any things that I might already have lying around that I could put in there for him to play with that he couldn’t hurt himself with? I guess I could put the carrot ball toy in there empty. I will not use toys with food in them there because (1) it is a sand lot so sand colic and (2) the other horse is very food aggressive. Anything else? I don’t really want to buy anything, because that’s $$ and then it’s more junk I have to find room for when it’s not in use. I was thinking about putting a yoga ball out there, though. I am not sure.
Any suggestions?
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. My guy does have a very playful pasture-mate so they spend the vast majority of their time harassing each other.