Winter Enrichment

The horses and by and large going to be stuck in the dry lot for the next several months. I’m sure mine aren’t the only ones!

What are some good ideas for enrichment?

I use Amazon boxes and hide treats under the flaps. Feed bags if it isn’t too windy. Various desensitizing things strapped to the non-electric parts of the fence. Those carrot balls hung from the ceiling, though I don’t fill them every day.

My 3 manage to entertain themselves.
When I did have to drylot them (mini’s first try at laminitis) I just put out extra hay.
My drylot is small, maybe 50W x 200L.
When we had that first snow last week, I drove up to see the 2 seniors - 24yo Hackney Pony & 21yo TWH - in the drylot, frolicing in the snow like colts.
10yo mini was too busy trying to get grass in through his muzzle. :roll_eyes:

ETA pic of those 2 in the drylot last Winter

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I give mine snacks of hot soaked beet pulp and put in apple slices or peppermints.

Mine are fans of the big dog toy ropes to play with and I have one that likes to throw around traffic cones.

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I love these:

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Are these loud like those god forsaken treat balls?

These ones:

:rofl:
What?
So your ponies can only enrich themselves quietly?:mute::shushing_face:

My stepdaughter brought a jollyball when she visited, hoping to “enrich” my herd.
Horse & pony ignored it.
Braveheart mini - who at 3 once drove calmly past a Mounted Shooting competition - gave the thing Stinkeye & a very wide berth.
Ball is now somewhere in the 2ac field, most likely blown there by wind, not horseplay.

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I have neighbors, and those things are really really loud. If you’ve never had to listen to them for hours on end, you wouldn’t understand.

Mine don’t like the jollyball either. They do mess with the stuffed animals I’ve got hung all over the place lol

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Its not super loud unless they kick them.

If your neighbors complain about noise, just threaten to get a couple of goats.

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I guess it depends on how much you like your neighbors :smiling_imp:

I’ll let stepd know about the stuffies.
She’s still certain she can get them to play with the ball :roll_eyes:

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Or donkeys :imp:

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Donkeys are OMG loud. My neighbors mini donkey brays every morning 5:45 AM when they start feeding the race horses.

For perspective, their farm is over 60 acres and donkey is kept in the back behind 4 huge barns.

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With nuggets of treats in them, even if they roll them around, they’re obnoxious.

Used to board at a place where a lady would come and give all 5 of her horses one around 6pm and then leave.

I’d go in and take them and give them back to them when the barn closed at 9pm - they can have them, but not when I have to listen to them all evening. Poor other horses in that aisle, probably didn’t get much sleep lol

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:laughing:
I’m picturing those cellblock tropes of the convicts running their tin cups across the bars…

@luvmyhackney I was at an auction & donkeys 2 barns away from the sale arena drowned out the auctioneer. & He was miked!

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I don’t know how to answer that question. Partly because I’ve never used that particular treat ball, but partly because I can’t imagine how either could be loud enough to disturb anyone.

I mean, I own a cribber, a donkey, a dog, and a rooster. The occasional clunk of the Amazing Graze doesn’t even register on the noise scale.

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Maybe I’ll try to take a video - I own two of those shire ones, and quit using them because they were so loud. I would think the amazing graze is quieter just by the design. That shires ball - the treats jump around inside because of all the edges and I swear they had the acoustics of sound projection in mind when they made it lol

we have two of these for the horses, sounds like they are building a new house when they are knocking the thing around their stall

We found the Purina Nicker Maker treats work well, these balls evidently are indestructible as they really take a beating

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They truly are indestructible. I once made the mistake of putting dog treats in it and giving it to my sister’s pitbull. I have no doubt that within the day he would have made it in, but the fact that it survived even an hour with him is testament to their durability.

Anyone who hates the Shires rolling at speed and banging should try drilling a hole in top put a piece of wood in then turn sideways to not leave the hole and hang them up. Or put them in a hay net. I have done both and while still not quiet they don’t get the speed up that they do on the ground. Bonus they aren’t covered in poo anymore…

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Huh, my horse just managed to destroy her rolling treat cube-ball-thing so I’m surprised they’re seen as super durable. I had put a few hay cubes in the week before and came back to find it cracker/wrapped down one side. No idea how it happened either. Mare doesn’t play hard with her toys (she barely interacts with them).

That is weird. I’ve seen a 16.3hh 1300# horse standing on one of mine and it didn’t suffer so much as a dent.