More Horse Toys

There are a number of horse toys available for horses to play with in the stable and field, and some of these can be especially useful if your horse has to be confined for long periods for reasons of illness or injury, such as a tendon strain or laminitis.

The most ideal toy is the Snak-a-Ball, which is a hard plastic ball designed to be used with pony nuts of similar, and encourages the natural foraging behaviour of your horse. You may have even seen some slightly more unusual animals using them in zoos as they are very tough and very useful for other animals such as zebras, monkeys, anteaters and other more exotic species to use! The pony nuts are put in at one end and the stable toy has to be rolled and manipulated by the horse in order to get them to drop out of the other end. This is an ideal way to encourage trickle feeding and prevent bolting of the food which can lead to choking, which can be a problem especially with greedy ponies.

Other useful toys include the tongue twister, a sturdy plastic ball that swivels and is attached to a wall and can be filled with 2 little Likits (Likits are described in a previous post). When the horse tries to bite the treat, the ball swivells away and the horse has to work to get hold of the tasty reward. Stable toys for horses help to enrich the equine environment and ensure the horse remains mentally relaxed which also aids a quick recovery.

Keeping your Horse Entertained with Stable Toys

There are a number of stable toys for horses on the market, but as well as being fun for your horse to play with, they also provide some important enrichment to your horses environment. It is often unavoidable to have to confine our horses for a number of reasons such as stabling at night during the winter, but this is essentially a very unnatural and sometimes unnerving position for a prey animal such as a horse to be in, so it often helps to provide some form of entertainment for them to distract them and make them feel at ease.

The most popular stable toy is probably the Boredom Breaker, a simple but effective toy consisting of a smooth plastic ball suspended from a rope with a pair of plastic plates designed to take a "Likit", a hard, sweet tasting horse treat available in a number of flavours.

Little likits can be inserted either side of the ball itself which provides further amusement, as the horse wants to bite the treats but has to work hard to get even a few licks. This helps to pass the time, and most horses enjoy the challenge of trying to seize the tasty reward, but make sure you place the toy away from a wall or most horses are clever enough to quickly learn they can trap the toy against the wall and get a good bite of the treat!

These stable toys can also be useful for horses that weave or kick the door. In this case it is usually ideal to place the toy in the doorway so that the horse encounters it when he looks out of the door which will often then distract him from the intention to perform a vice.

Types of Metal Used in Horse Bits

Many hundreds of years ago, horse bits were made from metal alloys which often included nickel or copper. Over the years, stainless steel was discovered and bit production was moved over to this much cheaper and stronger material which seemed to offer the ideal solution.

Nickel is know not to be the ideal material to have in bits as it can be prone to snapping without warning, and causes allergies in some horses in the form of small pimples around the lips and mouth.

Copper however, although soft can be very useful when mixed with other metals to give a much more palatable taste.

Stainless steel is very strong and can be formed into almost any conceivable shape, but to a horse is essentially a very ‘dead’ metal. There is no taste to it and is very difficult to mark which indicates its hardness. This tends to have the effect of drying the horse’s mouth and often causes a tense or rigid jaw in response to the very inert metal in their mouths. If you were to put a stainless steel fork in your own mouth and suck on it for a few minutes, you will see how it is very difficult to keep the saliva flowing when there is no taste stimulus.

Copper and sweet iron are commonly seen in horse bit production today, and with the modern thinking, there is good reason to think that almost every horse would prefer to be bitted in a bit made from one of these metals that is able to oxidise and has a ‘taste’. It is also said that these metals when used in conjunction with each other produce a minute (and harmless!) electrical charge that also helps to stimulate saliva production in the horse mouth, which helps to prevent cracked or split lips and a sore or hard mouth.

Modern bits such as Sprenger and Myler utilise these metals in their bit designs, and with the anatomical design of the mouthpieces tend to offer the horse the most pleasant bitting experience possible.