Horse Enrichment

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Enrichment is very important to have for all animals. It enhances their quality of life and provides them with mental and physical stimulation relieving them from boredom. It also allows them to carry out normal behaviours such as foraging and playing.
Horses:
Horses are social animals, it is important that your horse is in the company of other horses as much as possible as it allows them to show affection towards each other.
Providing your horse with the chance to be out in a paddock for most of the day is important because this provides them with exercise and a chance to express their normal behaviour such as grazing and this allows them to play with the other horses.
When stabling, horses should be able to see and interact with each other and be allowed to be able to put their heads over stable doors. This reduces stereotypic behaviours as they are not being isolated. …show more content…

Also puzzle feeders are good ways of keeping your horse mentally stimulated as they have to throw and shake the toy round to get food out of it.

If horses are being stabled for longer periods of time, it is a good idea to tie fruit and vegetables to the ceiling with string. This make the horse work for its food which keeps them entertained for some time.
Provide you horse with a hay net with small holes, this makes the horse work harder to get the hay out, this provided physical and mental stimulation.
Hide food in the bedding so they have to search for it allowing them to forage, this creates a diversion for horses not to carry out stereotypic behaviours.
By doing these thing, it reduces the risk of horses developing stereotypic behaviours which can be hard to stop once the horse starts doing

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