Do you see these trees?!? I honestly thought the first time I saw a tree so bare of wood that it was from a wild animal! But no, it's my horse. Apparently, she's so bored during the day that, to try to find something to do, she chews trees! Do you see how bare these trees are of their bark?! I know other people who have horses have this problem, too, and those horse's have companions, so it's not because of being lonesome. But she's killing all the trees! I was wondering what I could do to help her; get her a toy in her stall, a ball in her paddock, etc. Well, while reading a book called Horse Miracles, I found a story about a horse that had been cribbing, wood chewing, and weaving for years. Cribbing is when a horse puts it's open mouth on wood, or plastic, or metal, and makes a coughing sound, because it's trying to breathe in the dust of the material. It's bad for them. Wood chewing is plain wood chewing, what Daisy is doing, and weaving is when a horse is so bored in it's stall that they swing their head back and forth, and this is bad for them (I can't remember how, though, lol). This horse that did these things had a stable mirror put in it's stall, an acrylic mirror, and within a month it stopped doing all these things because it was so occupied with looking at it's mirror image! So, I googled stable mirrors, and I came up with this site: www.stable-mirrors.co.uk.
I really like the way the site looks, and the idea of the stable mirror. Though they don't seem to ship to the US, I'm going to see if I can find an acrylic mirror some where that I can put in Daisy's stall-maybe it'll help! Sorry this post was so long, but I found this subject interesting. Have a great weekend!
10 comments:
I read that book too! I always thought that was a cool idea to put a mirror in the stall. You could always get her a companion like a mini horse, but that's a much more expensive option. Maybe you could get her a JollyBall or a Likit. They're a little pricey, but it's probably worth it in end.
That's cool that horses like mirrors. I know birds do, but I never knew that horses did too.
Mellisa: Sorry I haven't been around for a while...still spending a lot of time with my Aunt. I sure do love your post and your stories.
LOL :)
HAHA!
WOW that tress look kind of cool... too bad Daisy- Mae is feeling lonely, hope the mirror helps - sounds like she has some winter blues... maybe you should have another over nighter in the barn when it is warmer
Oh, no worries, there will be LOTS of overnights in the barn this summer! Infact, I'm thinking about moving out there! jk
;-)
Here's another idea. Ask Stephanie about it. She lives over on Kear. The one with the brown and white appaloosa. Her horse was lonely and she got the horse a companion-a goat named Jack. I'm pretty sure goats are much much less expensive to keep than another horse. Maybe Steph could tell you if it is working.
We thought of getting a goat-in the beginning we were going to, but they're REALLY hard to keep fenced in-they break through everything. Maybe one day we'll get a fence INSIDE Daisy's paddock for a goat...
My horse spooked today from seeing herself in the mirror:-) We have one in the arena and for some reason today....yikes! Maybe a bad "mane" day:-)
thats amazing!!
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