Stable toys - cheap and cheerful ideas?

[Lucymj]

Hi everyone!

I spent the afternoon doing my biannual stable spring clean and Jacks dusty play ball is just sitting where it always does gathering dust and spider webs!

He will be coming in at night over winter and i want to make his stable as fun as possible for him, but there is a serious lack of funds! Any cheap ideas? xxx

[gizmo]

Cut carrot or swede up and thread it onto string.

Hang up his play ball from the stable roof

[berylsmum]

I used to put a whole sweed in Beryls feed bucket (rubber skip thing) after she finished her dinner so she could keep herself amused eating it. It worked well for a bit and then she got bored of the taste of swede and would not touch it.
I also once scattered a handful of carrots around her bed as I had managed to leave her ball at home. She managed to find and eat them all which surprised me I was expecting to find a few the next morning. Her bed did get trashed a bit though!

[Ali]

Hi,

Ours play apple bobbing Put apples in their water bucket and they chase them round to get them. Unfortunately our section a has got to good at it he gets his in 2 minutes so back to the drawing board!!

[plusrider]

A hand full of their ration (dont give extra's) into a plastic milk bottle and tie string to the handle.

They spend hours playing with it to get the food out.

[LouiseM]

You can't really try this until later in the year but sprouts on the stalk are a great toy. Loop a bit of string round the middle of the stalk and dangle it from somewhere. Joe and Roo both thought this was great, and it kept them amused for ages.

Joe did think i was mean and stinky when i tied it to quite a bendy branch of a tree in his field, though!

[Lucymj]

Thanks for the great ideas! I dont live on the yard though........... i am probably being totally paranoid but e wouldnt choke on aples or anything would he?! xxx

[Lydia00]

Hi, ive once got an apple, pierced a hole through the middle of it all the way thru (with a stable fork), then put string thru it and tied it to the roof of her stable! At first she's be there for ages but now she gets it almost straight away so now im gunna go onto bobbing apples!! lol

[shannon]

No don't worry, apples'll be fine

I use swedes and turnips with mine over the winter, loose in the stable. I also hide carrots in the bed/on the walls, which they're both experts at retrieving lol! Also apples (obviously), plums (cut up and the stone removed). Also heard that courgettes were good, so tried them on it....their faces were pictures- needless to say they spat it out! But there's lots of fruits/ veg that horses can eat, so these can be handy for foraging in the stable.

Hope has given you some ideas

[Flic]

Theres lots of great ideas here, must make a list and try them out, love the idea of brussel sprouts on a string!
My Chestnut thinks rugs in his stable make good play toys(stomp&shred)-not particularly cheap tho as i found out just after buying him!!
Anyone else have any good tips??

[Cathy248]

If you have an old lead rope I find that's the best thing for threading interesting things onto as it's thick enough that it won't do any damage if the chew it (unlike string/twine). If you buy carrots from your local farmers shop you can usually pick up huge fat ones which are great to thread onto ropes and hang around the stable. Sweed is also good but doesn't disappear half as fast! Apples work too!
I've also tried the sweede bobbing (rather than apple) because huge bits kept being knocked over to her water!

[roo]

One of ours likes sprouts on a stalk.....he spits the sprouts out and munches on the stalk!

[Jem]

i used 2 put my jesters in a hay net, then cut up carrots and stick them out of the haynet! He used to love it! slows them down eatin their hay aswell tehe coz they spend so much time looking for their carrots lol! If i felt very generous i would use apples, and sweads to he he xxx

[Jem]

oh and my boys love lil oranges! makes them smell nice to lol