I'm thinking about buying some toys for my yearling, since he seems like the type who would actually play with them. If I'm grooming him in the stall and I put the brushes in the feed bucket, he'll either methodically pick them up one by one and drop them in the water bucket or swing them around while I'm working, he seems to get a real kick out of it :lol:
So I guess I'm looking for opinions and stories. Does your horse have a toy he loves to play with? And what are the most durable brands?
I'm definitely looking at jolly balls I really liked these Horseballs, but I can't find an online retailer...possibly they are out of business, or don't have a large shipping network, don't know.
I toss my kids stuff out with the horses..lol Currently they are busy with a hula hoop. They pick it up and it rattles and they toss it back down. They step on it and push it with their feet until it flips over... This hula hoop was bent and no longer round when I threw it out there... :lol: I have used milk jugs and 2ltr pop bottles too. I once put tin cans in an old pillow case and tied it shut. They didn't like that one too much so I took it out. That and its not weather proof. They would mouth the noisy sack then walk off...guess it wan't too exciting.
:lol: Believe it or not, I found out yesterday, my bay mare who is usually refined, liked bobbing for an apple. It happened by chance. I gave her a half an apple. She dropped it in her water tank. She had quite the time trying to get it. I don't usually see her play. My buckskin gelding is the player. He had his balls in the pasture,... But she was quite amused with the apple in the water. I did make sure she got it so it wouldn't stay in the water.
Our very playful mare, "Lady", will play with anything EXCEPT horse toys. The Jolly ball gets an occasional toss, but a hose or bucket or plastic jugs or just about anything else she can carry around keeps her amused all the time.
I've never seen a horse at our stable play with the jolly balls. For some reason they just don't like them.
The big thing around here is the Amazing Graze toy. Just about every person I've told about them has bought one! They are excellent for all kinds of horses. Nervous horses, playful horses, stall bound horses.
They keep them very active and interested. Just Google "Amazing Graze" and you'll get a variety of hits with the info.
Here's a pic:
And here is some video of him sharing it with a pal.
Well.. All I can say my money for the jolly balls for my 2 yearlings was a waste. They LOVE to play with each other and completely ignored all toys I throw in field and in stall...
Yep they are great. My parents stallion had one for years when he was younger, he stepped on it, he would bite it, play soccor with it, lol you name it, he did it. Its still in tact today
I bought a jolly ball for Ri but the dogs keep stealing it. So I bought him an apple thing that hangs from the rafters but I gave it to Beauty when she was a prisoner of her stall... He likes to help with the barn chores though...
My gelding loved the jolly ball until our dog stole it and chewed it up but then he finds ammusment with all sorts of "toys" He plays with hula hoops, bicycle tires, all kinds of things.
was going to include picture of my gelding playing with a stick but not sure how to upload the picture?? [/code]
just above the message window that you respond in, under the URL button, there is an Upload Picture button, hit that and go from there (hit standard) to get it to load.
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