This DIY enrichment activity is easy to put together and your horse will love it! This browse board is themed for the holidays but can be offered as a fun boredom buster at any time of year. It’s simple, budget friendly, and perfect for an in-the-stable activity when it’s cold outdoors. Here’s how to make the DIY holiday tree browse board for your horse, step by step.
A Christmas Tree Your Horse Will Love
The decorated tree is a holiday staple for many. I grew up in tree farming country and remember visiting the farm to have the tree cut and packed right on the spot – there’s nothing quite like it!
This enrichment activity aims to bring some of the holiday cheer to the stable for your horse – but in a way that they’ll enjoy as much as you.
A note as we move through this article: in most areas they’re known as Christmas trees, but most horses don’t seem too picky about denomination. So other than in this section, I’m using the phrase “holiday tree for horses” throughout this article to be more inclusive.
We’ll walk through how to make this very simple stable boredom buster step by step, but first – what’s the point of making the holiday tree browse board, anyway?
Why Make This Horse Toy?
The holiday tree browse board isn’t just cute Christmas-themed fun. We love our horses but they don’t exactly keep a calendar around to know when the holidays are!
This is enrichment item for your horse, and the super cute holiday theme is enjoyable for us.
So what’s enrichment?
Enrichment for horses is anything we do that encourages them to use their bodies and minds in natural ways. In other words, providing items and opportunities that promote equine behavior!
Enrichment includes familiar boredom busters for horses as well as species-appropriate eating opportunities, complex environments, and so on.
This item is a DIY project, and it’s really budget friendly. You will have to scavenge up a big piece of cardboard and use a marker and knife – so if you’re looking for something more plug-and-play, there’s nothing wrong with buying a quick gift for your horse like the fabulous, squashy Hol-ee Roller webby ball instead.
What Horses Will Enjoy the Holiday Browse Board?
This enrichment item is easy, approachable, and appealing. You can use it anywhere – it’s pictured outdoors on a scratching post in this article – but works great for horses in stalls. If your horse is confined to a stall for injury, items like this are an easy way to add daily variety and interest while encouraging natural behaviors.
The treats and browse are easy to see and the cardboard is a soft, non-noisy, neutral material. This makes the holiday tree treat board a good choice for horses who are new to enrichment and need to learn how boredom busters work.
The DIY holiday tree browse board encourages (surprise surprise) browsing, which is eating non-grass material like tree leaves or shrubs. It’s a normal equine behavior. Browsing takes a lot of coordination and dexterity, so this boredom buster is also a good choice for horses who like to explore with their mouths, or who need an outlet for anxiety.
Just remember, activities like this can’t replace the fundamentals of good care. Make sure your horse always has forage such as hay available as part of your strategy for best equine welfare.
How to Make the Holiday Tree for Horses
This basic enrichment item is really simple to put together – you can be in and out in about ten minutes, and the rest is fun for your horse!
It follows the same basic construction plan as the DIY Veggie Mane Browse Board (except no carrot noodles) so don’t miss that article if you want to create different shapes.
Supplies Needed
You only need a few supplies for this DIY horse toy:
- A large sheet of sturdy, double-ply corrugated cardboard
- A serrated kitchen knife
- Marker or charcoal pencil
- Treats and browse
The cardboard should be thick, ideally double layered. Big shipping boxes are your best bet, and the holidays are the perfect time of year. Raid the recycling area of your workplace or school if you haven’t gotten a giant Amazon box recently.
Speaking of Amazon, this serrated knife set is a good example of what you’ll need to make the shape. Trust me – serrated steak knifes were actually meant to cut cardboard for DIY horse enrichment. Scissors can’t do the job and box cutters aren’t made for detailed cuts. A serrated knife acts like a saw and lets you make curves and tight corners easily.
I recommend dry browse material such as horse-safe tree or shrub leaves and twists of hay for this enrichment, plus dry-ish treats like carrots for the “ornaments.”
Cutting Out the Tree
Place your cardboard sheet on a flat surface and draw the shape you want.
A holiday tree isn’t difficult, it’s just a rough triangle – but you can also make wreaths, snowflakes, or other seasonal shapes. Use your creativity!
When you’ve drawn the shape you want, support the cardboard and begin sawing out the shape using your knife. In these images you can see that the cardboard is resting on the walkway and I’m cutting very close to the walkway edge for maximum support.
I like to cut out most of the cardboard first, to the edges of the tree before moving on to do the detailed work:
Work carefully for safety but don’t worry if you mess up – your horse won’t care!
Making the Holes for the Treats
To make this cardboard DIY holiday tree, you’ll use a combination of cuts to prepare for the treats.
X-shaped cuts hold chunks or sticks of browse. The cross-shaped cut holds onto the treats so that they stick out straight.
If you use hay or other browse as shown, you’ll want to cut out some holes to hold onto the twists of hay. You’ll also want to add a rounded hole to support the clip or rope you use to hang up your enrichment when complete:
When you make the treat slots or holes, use caution and common sense. Keep full control over your knife and make sure the cardboard is well-supported. Poke the tip of the knife into the first layer of cardboard, then gently apply pressure to complete the cut – and watch where your hands are at all times!
Finish Your DIY Holiday Tree Browse Board
With the “ornament” hole and slots complete, you’re ready to finish!
You can use any horse-safe treat for this DIY browse board, but a combination of foods work best. To make a twist of hay, grab a small handful and shake away excess, making sure the hay is mostly going in one direction as shown:
Then take the other end of the bundle of hay and curl it around:
Poke the curved end into the hole you made and pull until just snug.
Dry treats work best because moist foods will soften the cardboard. Carrots, celery, and pretzel sticks make great choices. Apple sticks usually work well too (cut them with a section of peel for extra strength).
When finished, hang up the toy for your horse using a carabiner clip as shown, or a thick cotton rope.
Holiday Tree for Horses Use and Safety
Safety should always be a top concern when making horse enrichment.
This browse board is typically extremely safe, but as a basic reminder:
- Observe your horse while using the board. Don’t leave it unsupervised without plenty of observation time first.
- If you use natural browse, make sure you have a correct ID on the plants.
- Don’t use clips to hang up the browse board if your horse wears a halter or other gear.
- Observe your horse for signs of nervousness and don’t use this item in a stall unless they’re familiar and comfortable with it.
If your horse is nervous about this or other items, this article on fear of enrichment can help.
Related Enrichment
This super cute holiday tree horse enrichment encourage browsing – and there are lots of other ways to offer a similar experience! Try these for additional variety in your horse’s life:
DIY Browse Board (semi-permanent wood design for easily adding new browse)
Ball + Hay Net Treat Toy for free-swinging treat catching fun
Bucket Lid Browse Toy – another simple DIY to keep you on-budget!