Enrichment for Horses
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Time to read 2 min
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Time to read 2 min
Enrichment helps promote positive physical and psychological well-being in horses as it provides a way to encourage natural behaviours.
Adding a variety of enrichment to a horse’s stable or field can help stimulate a range of behaviours including foraging, exploration, movement and social interactions. Without enrichment, horses can be become bored or under-stimulated and this can lead to stress related behaviours such as stable walking, crib biting and weaving.
Enrichment Ideas for Horses
To keep your horse stimulated, there are several ways you can add enrichment activities and boredom busters to the stable or turnout areas. Here are a few horse enrichment ideas you could try:
Stable Toys
A ball feeder stable toy can be filled with treats to encourage your horse to explore the toy and release an award. A ball feeder is ideal enrichment for in the stable or field and can be used to extend feeding time and offer mental stimulation.
Scratching Stations
Setting up scratching stations can allow your horse to show natural scratching behaviours and give them opportunities to explore different textures. Our Equine Scratcher can be secured to a fence post or stable wall to help your horse safely relieve itchiness, shed a seasonal coat and gain relief from insect bites.
Greedy Feeder Net
Horses naturally graze for 16-18 hours a day, so providing enrichment that lengthens foraging time can help encourage natural feeding behaviours. One way to pro-long feeding time is to use hay nets with small holes as these can slow down feeding to rates that are closer to natural feeding lengths.
Forage Boxes
A cardboard box filled with hay and treats gives you an easy way to offer your horse a forage box that encourages exploration, curiosity and use of their senses. Alongside hay, a forage box can easily be enriched with safe vegetables, fruits and herbs such as carrots, apples, mint and dandelions.
Plant-based enrichment
Another way to encourage foraging behaviours is to collect horse safe plants from hedgerows that can be put in a forage net or hung in the stable. There a variety of non-toxic plants you could pick, including cow parsley, nettles, cleavers (sticky weed) and willow branches. Remember to only pick plants that you can identify and know are safe for horses!
Social Interactions
Horses are social herd animals, so providing your horse with herd turnout or opportunities to interact with other horses can be positive for encouraging natural behaviours. If you’re able to turn your horse out in a herd or allow them to interact with a horse over the fence, it will give them the chance to display herd behaviours such as grooming and communication.
Remember: When introducing any enrichment to the stable or field, always monitor your horse to check that they can interact with the enrichment safely and that it doesn’t cause them to show any signs of distress.
