It’s that time of year again where the days are getting shorter, colder and wetter. 

It wasn’t that long ago where you had all the time in the world to spend with your horse, long hacks, extra sessions in the paddock and the luxurious grooming sessions. Now they hardly see you and when they do you’re in a rush to get everything done quickly.

Standing all day waiting to see someone is very boring for a horse and generally makes for an unhappy horse. 

What can you do to alleviate your horse’s boredom? 

Hanging treats 

Before rushing off to buy string and treats you must make sure that your horse won’t be spooked by anything hanging in the stable and you must make sure that anything hanging is done safely.

For safety get a piece of PVC pipe and slide over the entire length of the rope and this will avoid entanglement. 

There are hanging boredom breakers on the market that you can buy or you can be creative with some vegetables.

Boredom ball 

Or as your horse sees it, a fun ball.  

Horses are big kids and anything that they can roll about on the floor or toss in the air is always good fun. If they’ve got other horses to play their ball with then even better, tugging and throwing a ball around together is a great way to pass the time until you turn up. 

Slow feed ball 

Your horse can have fun while getting treats. Place it in a feed tub if you don’t want it rolling everywhere or if you want to encourage your horse to move about then just place it on the floor.

Safety first warning: Be aware of what you’re placing in the feed ball, try to keep it to food that you know your horse won’t choke on. 

Traffic cones 

You know how humans sometimes like to wear a traffic cone on their head, horses also find them amusing. Horses tend to like to carry traffic cones around, don’t ask me why, I mean why do humans wear them on their heads? Make sure to buy yours from somewhere like eBay and don’t remove them from some highway maintenance project. 

Rock salt lick

Mineral salt made with pure Himalayan salt is an extremely hard structure which makes it impossible for your horse to bite through. Licking a rock salt is a great way to alleviate boredom and also a good way to provide your horse with salt that is often lacking in their diets. 

They come safely secured to a rope which makes it handy to hang in the stable.  

Boredom can cause serious health problems for horses, make sure to do all you can to alleviate it.