It's a little over a month since we built our Paddock Paradise and in that time I've learned quite a bit about keeping the horses this way. The main thing that has struck me is that it is a very labour intensive exercise. As we have a relatively small space it is important that we keep up to date with poo picking, sifting hay from the gravel, ensuring there is adequate hay/water available and of course providing the all important enrichment activities. Infact, I sometimes feel like the manager of a five star hotel, constantly keeping an eye on my guests, (horses), in order to make sure that their every need is met including an interesting and varied entertainments programme! Red coats, (or whatever they are these days), eat your hearts out!
On the subject of enrichment, I'm staggered both by the extent and variety of activities that the horses enjoy. The first thing I have been doing for them is foraging. Yes, foraging! Each day I go out with a builder's sack and some dangerous looking secateurs and comb the countryside for anything that looks tasty for the horses. I've actually become rather OCD about it. I've started noticing particularly juicy looking gorse bushes whilst driving past, slamming on the brakes and jumping out, feeling the thrill of securing such tasty looking morsels. Although somewhat time consuming, this has really helped me view the countryside through the horses' eyes. What would they find appealing, what would they be drawn to? I've been filling the sack and taking it back to base camp where the horses await in anticipation. The once scary yellow flapping builder's sack has now taken to resembling impending treats and is thus a favourite object on the yard!
The picture shows a bag full of flowering gorse, heather and brambles. Unbelievably, the four horses usually take less than 15 minutes to devour the whole lot!
I was amazed to find that all the horses actually crunch through the gorse, the picture being proof of this! They particularly seem to enjoy delicately picking off the flowers and then eating their way through the thistles! I've also included the rather long video which not only shows the first release onto Paddock Paradise but lots of film of the ponies browsing the extra forage I'd brought home for them.
This has all made me realise just how much of a varied diet horses actually need and it makes the traditional notion of a rectangular grassy paddock seem far from what they actually require. I've also thought a lot about about stereotypies and it's easy to see that a horse deprived of opportunities to chew/strip wood and browse a variety of forage could easily become frustrated.
Other enrichment ideas include filling old milk bottles with gravel and letting the horses make them into rattles. For those of you who haven't seen it, I've included below a video of Alfie getting to grips with one of these!
We've also put apples and pears in their water buckets so that they can spend time bobbing with them which can be highly amusing to watch and consumes much of their time in an effort to grab hold of the prize! We've hidden carrots all around in strategic nooks and crannies for them to discover during the day and it's really interesting to note which ones have been discovered and which ones have been left. It's fascinating to notice that once the ponies have learned a hiding place, they are quick to gravitate towards it upon being turned out!!
The other item that has been turned into an unexpected enrichment activity is the wind chimes! The ponies quite often can be seen nudging the chimes to make a noise, perhaps they are trying to start their own band! I'll try and get some video of this in due course and it's inspired me to get creative with the enrichment programme. I'm going to experiment with leaving out more interactive play objects such as a keyboard and I'll report back on this in a future post.
In terms of practicalities, I've learned that the best way to pick poo from gravel is to resort to good old marigolds! It's actually far quicker and more efficient to sift through this way then to try any other way. We're still trying to come up with a solution for feeding hay. Not only are the haynets not good for the horses' posture but it is a bit of a nightmare when the hay becomes mixed with the gravel! We're currently in the process of constructing some prototypes as ready made feeders are incredibly expensive. When we've had the opportunity to test some, I'll include the details in a future post. The railway sleepers are doing a great job as a muck heap and continuing to provide a lovely surface for itching on! I'm also so pleased that we went for such a lot of gravel. The ponies spend so much time on it and can be quite boisterous. Thus far the membrane remains well hidden and even with the gravel having settled, the depth still withstands cantering and digging hooves!!
Apart from the intensive nature of keeping Little Paddock Paradise ticking over, my main worry has been over the lack of space. I've questioned whether it's ethical to keep the ponies in a relatively confined area during the worst of the wet weather and I have had some sleepless nights worrying about this. I've had to give myself a bit of a break recently and have realised that most of us sadly are not in a position to give our four legged friends the exact environment we would desire. Recognising this, it becomes all about compromise and doing the best we can with the resources we've got. If it weren't for Little Paddock Paradise, the horses would be spending long periods of time confined within the four walls of their stables. The Paradise enables them to move about, to socialise and to fulfill a variety of their other basic needs. It also enables them to remain barefoot year round and in so doing contributes further to their overall well being. Looking at it from this balanced perspective I would say that the whole project so far has been a resounding success and has fulfilled the goal of enabling us to give the ponies some turnout area which enhances the condition of their feet. More than that, it's given us a valuable opportunity to learn more about their needs and to observe their preferences across a variety of areas. As far as compromises go, I think we can all live with this one!
Loved those videos. You've given me so much to think about. I have my horse at a stable, so I don't know how agreeable the owner would be to me trying any of these things, but I think it's worth trying. I laughed that the horse with the milk jug. So cute!
ReplyDelete