Horse Toys

[zhiaral]

I know toys are an excellent way to relieve boredom and stimulate a horses mind, as well as giving them an activity other than undesirable habits to learn. What kinds of toys do the people on here have for their Kigers (and any other horse)?

I have an ulterior motive in asking. I'm hoping to find something to alter my new status as the most inconsiderate and cruel human in existence. Dusk has a Jolly Ball, a tug rope, two dogs and two humans to play with - but she found an amazingly fun new toy today, and I had to take it away from her. The tattered remains of a black plastic trash bag blew into her pasture, from who knows where - when the wind gets to blowing here, strange things turn up. The first I knew of the 'new toy' was Dusk tearing at a dead run around her pasture with her nose in the air and a cloud of black plastic snapping and crackling over her back. Spinning in circles, sliding stops... She was holding it in her mouth - at first I was afraid it had gotten hooked on her somehow, and she was in a panic! Oh, no. It was entirely deliberate, and she's been pouting since I took it away.

I'm also just plain curious what people have come up with. Most sites seem to concentrate on either edible 'toys' or balls.

So... what toys do all of you have, and do you know of any that are light, crackly, small enough to be carried and non-hazardous to equines?

[Michelle Clarke]

I would never use edible toys as I feel it adds to destructive behavior. Personally, I add obstacles - a platform, a tire, some large rocks and logs. Will peak curiosity, plus build the seeking drive in your horse which is much needed for training later on.

[lindad]

Bolero loves his 50 gal barrels!!! He pushes them around and chases them, picks them up by the rim and balances them on the fence and then pushes them over. He frequently takes one or two barrels to his shed when he is going to be in there to get away from the bugs or bad weather or to sleep. Kind of like a kid with a blankey. He likes to slam them into a tree so they bounce back at him. He even plays with them in the middle of the night. He has one that he caved in on one side and he likes it because it moves differently than the others, and clunks along vs rolling freely.

He loved his jolly balls as a youngster but no longer plays with them.

When I took a tarp out to have him learn to step on it, he picked it up and ran with it just as you described your horse doing, but then deliberately tore it by stepping on it and pulling it with his teeth. When I spred it out on the ground he not only stood on it but laid down and rolled on it. He loved it! If your mare doesn't shred it, you might try a small tarp under supervised play periods.

He used to like to twirl a cotton rope with lots of knots that was about 2 ft long.

He also has a horse toy that can be filled with carrot or apple chunks, hay cubes, horses cookie treats and dispenses them as it is rolled along.

There are horse tough balls that can be hung in a stall. Some people use milk cartons, but never tried it with Bolero as I knew he would bite and break them and it would be unsafe. I gave him a big playground tough ball to chase, but again he bit it and you should have seen the surprise and disappointment on his face when it deflated. It lasted about 3 minutes.

And lastly, he loves to flip a cart full of freshly collected manure, and runs away "laughing".

[zhiaral]

Hmm... I'll have to look into getting Dusk a barrel! I'd already thought that a log and/or a platform might be good - and I'd considered the big pasture balls, but I suspect they'd just get blown into the fence all the time. I'm a bit leery of 'treat' toys as well, though that's in part because Dusk turns up her nose at most treats. I'll have to see what I can find for a small, tough tarp - everything I have is large, and the only thing I've found online for horse-play is a 'parachute' training tool that is way too big for Dusk to be trying to run around with.

[fantasykiger]

I have a mattress in my pasture, large black buckets you usually get from trees at a nursery, and a heavy duty tarp. The kind of tarp that my husband uses for irrigation pond liners. A horse or mule in my case, can not tear it. They do bite the matteress up sometimes, but should the springs become exposed it gets removed and tossed in the trash. This last matteress has lasted a long time they just like walking on it then picking it up and dropping it.

[lindad]

My daughter's yearling mini-donkey, loves to run around squeaking the large dog's toy. He also like to take the hose and wrap it around the younger donkey. The zonkeys thought that rubber feed pans made great tug of war toys. They are not indestructible by the way.