Driving me potty

[Jessey]

Niko gets easily bored, when bored he gets himself in trouble.

Every day this week he’s tipped his huge water bucket out in the field, and dug holes, despite being on grass and getting haylage out there. Yesterday’s massive effort.


At night he drags the rubber mats around in the shelter, pulls out any rugs, buckets, yard tools or anything else he can reach, is chewing on the shelter.

I even got him some pumpkins this week to focus his energy on, he only ate half before ignoring them.

What else can I do? It’s difficult at night as food can’t be on the ground, it can in the day though.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Could you suspend some root veg in the shelter for him to play with? I've seen swedes etc used and Ziggy used to enjoy them when he was on box rest. Branches are good for playing too.

My field sharer (Bella's owner) has suspended an old treat pot outside the shelter and made a hole in the bottom. If you fill it with smallish cobs, sometimes one comes out if a horse biffs it with its nose. Only sometimes. It keeps Bella busy for ages.

 

[Lollykay]

Oh my goodness, Niko is worse than Rusty has ever thought of being, lollol. I know the issue is a serious one but I still have chuckle a little bit

I see another horse in his pasture so being alone isn’t the issue. Niko is a horse with a busy brain. I would suggest one of those huge jolly balls, but he would probably roll it under the fence, then go after it.

Do you have a way to hang up some toys? If this Amazon link works, it has some hanging “horse boredom toys” that might keep Niko occupied. It also shows those big jolly balls.

Amazon.com : horse boredom toys

www.amazon.com

Other than wishing You good luck in figuring out how to keep him subdued at night, this is all I got

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

The hanging nets for carrots/swedes are a good idea and would be really easy to improvise with an old haynet!

 

[Jessey]

I know it’s just his baby brain needing entertainment still, I’m sure he’ll grow out of it as he gets older

He does have access to the willow trees at night which he enjoys eating and scratching on (hence he’s always covered in scrapes )

I can hang food in the shelter at night, the slight issue is the fat grumpy witch is likely to take it for herself The pumpkins were safe as she doesn’t like them though she’s not keen on swedes so I’ll pick one of those up in the morning.

That reminds me, he loves those hay blocks in a net, I think making loads of noise is almost as nice as eating them for him I shall get some more of those in!

 

[Skib]

When Maisie was on box rest we hung up a swede for her. She completely ignored it.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Does Jess like alfalfa? Uf not you could get some lucie blocks, they are really hard and last well in a net. Not loose, as then the horse can just pick them up and bite them (eek!)

 

[Jessey]

Does Jess like alfalfa? Uf not you could get some lucie blocks, they are really hard and last well in a net. Not loose, as then the horse can just pick them up and bite them (eek!)

Sadly she loves it and it makes Niko itchy