This DIY horse toy is cute and craftsy – and you can make it for free! It doesn’t get much simpler than this homemade horse enrichment that uses repurposed bath tissue tubes – but the result is a super appealing, boredom busting toy for all horses. Here’s how to make this budget friendly cardboard tube treat toy for horses, step by step.
Cardboard Tube Treat Toy for Horse Enrichment
It doesn’t get much better than free horse toys. Yes, some amazing enrichment items can be bought off the shelf or online (I’m looking at you, Hol-ee Roller ball), but making horse enrichment that costs nothing is pretty great.
Most homemade horse toys are extremely simple, but this hanging cardboard treat toy is a little more complex. It’s made from several stacked bath tissue tubes, connected by a rope running through a hole in each tube.
After stringing the tubes together, you’ll stuff each tube with forage like hay, fresh browse or herbs, and special goodies like apples or carrots. Hang the toy up in your horse’s stall or pasture, then the fun begins.
Do Budget Horse Toys Make Good Enrichment?
Budget friendly, free and repurposed DIY enrichment can be just as good for your horse as retail products. I’m a huge fan of saving money where you can, so that you can invest in other ways to boost your horse’s welfare.
It’s really important to note that enrichment for horses isn’t just physical objects and toys. Toys are fabulous, but unless your horse is on stall rest by a vet’s orders, it’s crucial to give your equine an enriched environment with lots of turnout, friends, and forage.
What’s that said, enrichment items like this budget friendly toilet paper tube toy give your horse the opportunity to engage in behaviors that the environment might not support. This is why horses need enrichment – to encourage activities that are mentally and physically healthy.
What Behaviors Does the DIY Cardboard Tube Treat Toy Encourage?
The benefits of enrichment come from the behaviors they encourage. In other words, enrichment gets your horse moving and thinking and acting like a horse, and that’s good for them.
The cardboard tube toy encourages browsing. Browsing is a feeding behavior that involves eating leaves and other forage that’s not grass.
Browsing is a normal equine behavior and a good way that wild horses supplement their diet. So enrichment items like this give your horse the opportunity to enjoy a natural behavior even if you don’t have trees in the paddock. It’s also a good way to direct their attention away from trees by giving them a healthy alternative.
How to Make the Cardboard Tube Treat Toy, Step by Step
This toy looks complicated but is actually very easy. If you have a crafty side, it’s a great relaxing project. The cardboard tube treat toy also makes a fabulous activity for younger equestrians, or as a whole-barn enrichment workshop project.
What you need
- Commercial/institutional toilet paper tubes
- Soft, thick polypropylene or cotton rope (not baling twine)
- Hay or browse
- Additional treats
- Carabiner or snap clip
Step 1. Source Cardboard Tubes
You’ll need an armful of cardboard tissue tubes for this project.
The best option for this DIY horse enrichment project are the wide, heavy toilet paper tubes that you find in public restrooms or office and school bathrooms.
They’re thicker and much more durable than home grade toilet paper or paper towel tubes. You can use those in a pinch, but the toy won’t last as long. If you use tubes from home, you should also make sure not to leave this toy unattended. The thinner cardboard can more easily come apart and be mistaken for food.
The best place to find these tubes is the recycling bin(s) at your workplace or school, if your restrooms have the large institutional rolls of TP. I usually try to find alternative sources for items if buying is easier for you than scrounging, but these just aren’t available on Amazon. If you can’t go bin-diving, the DIY Swinging Snack Toy makes a good substitute, and you can buy the component balls online.
While you’re browsing the recycling, grab a cardboard box and paper for a forage box, or shipping inserts for an easy DIY textured food puzzle.
Step 2. Punch the Holes
This DIY boredom busting horse toy works because you’ll create two holes in the side of each cardboard tube and thread them onto a rope. This creates a toy with open ends for sticking in forage and treats.
There are several ways to make holes in the cardboard tubes…and some are safer than others. The fastest and safest method is using a cordless drill and regular fluted drill bit.
After you make each hole, rotate the drill as it runs in a “mixing” motion to widen the hole and clean it up a little. Also, be careful as you start each hole because the drill bit may wander over the curved surface of the cardboard.
A drill is by far the best way to make this DIY enrichment, but it’s possible to use a short serrated knife by moistening the area you intend to punch in order to soften the cardboard. But any kind of knife or pointed object is MUCH less safe and will take forever. Do yourself a huge favor and just grab your barn’s drill from the tool drawer.
Your barn DOES have a cordless drill, like the DeWalt model used in these tutorials…right?
Step 3. String the Tubes
Next, you’ll string the cardboard tubes onto a rope with a knot at one end and a loop on the other. This is the final step before adding treats and forage.
You can use several types of rope for this DIY enrichment project, but I recommend against using baling twine. It’s everywhere in most barns, but it’s not the best choice for DIY enrichment. Baling twine is tough to thread through this toy without shredding, it may not stand up to rough use, and it’s a real hazard if the toy falls down and the twine gets swallowed.
Instead, use a polypropylene or cotton rope from ⅜ to ½ inch in diameter. Rope is available at most general merchandise stores, usually in the home improvement or automotive section.
The length of rope you need depends on how many cardboard tubes you’re using. Lay the tubes out in a row and measure out your rope, giving yourself about two extra feet for making the knot and loop.
Make a chunky knot in one end. If you’re using synthetic rope like polypropylene, it’s a good idea to seal the end using a lighter, but this is optional.
Gently thread the rope through the holes in the cardboard tubes, allowing them to stack onto one another.
There’s no maximum number of tubes for this project. I’m using cardboard tubes repurposed from a workplace activity, so I made this one extra long, and there are a few extra tubes glued onto the sides:
When all the tubes have been added to the rope, make a figure 8 knot in the end to hold a carabiner or bullnose clip.
Step 4. Fill the Cardboard Tube Toy with Treats
This enrichment item is ultra versatile. It’s a blank slate – just empty tubes in a row – but the magic is in how you choose to fill the tubes.
You’ll want some kind of filler, usually hay. It’s also possible to use freshly cut grass, lettuce, and natural browse from horse safe trees.
Stuff the forage or browse into the tubes, squashing it in so that plenty sticks out the ends. It’ll look at little crazy, but that’s OK.
If you want, you can trim the hay down a little bit with scissors for a tidier look, but that’s totally optional.
Then, for extra interest and variety, add other items like fruits and veggies.
For more ideas, head over to the follow-up article 5 Way to Fill the Cardboard Tube Toy after you finish this read!
Using and Your DIY Cardboard Tube Toy for Horses
To use this toy, attach a carabiner or double snap clip to the loop you made in the end of the rope, and hang it up. Place a large mat or shallow pan underneath to catch treats as they fall out of the toy – part of the puzzle is learning to jostle the hanging cardboard and then check beneath for goodies.
You can also just tie it, but clips offer extra security and are make adding and removing the item much easier. You can find multipacks of stainless steel carabiners here on Amazon, and stainless double clips here.
Don’t use this toy on the ground, where your horse could stick a hoof into one of the tubes. Chances are nothing would happen except a silly looking horse, but safety is always top priority when using enrichment.
Tip: If you have no spaces for hanging this toy up, try the DIY Treat Train instead – it uses closed plastic canisters and is designed to go on the ground!
Hang the toy from the height of the horse’s poll, or just high enough to be challenging.
Then, just enjoy! This toy should be used under supervision at first, to make sure your horse learns how to use it correctly. Afterward, they can have it unsupervised, though it’s best to remove the cardboard tube toy after use so that it stays in better shape.
Related Equine Enrichment
The Hol-ee Roller and other webby balls make great puzzle toys with a similar vibe.