For natural boredom relief, look no further than giving your horse the chance to browse. Edible herbs and the leaves of shrubs and trees provide a special enrichment experience for horses, and this DIY browse board for horse enrichment makes it easy to offer browse in a safe way. It’s an easy and inexpensive project with lots of benefits for your horse. Here’s how to make a browse board, step by step.
What Is a DIY Browse Board for Horses?
This equine enrichment item is a really simple concept. Just grab a board and attach brackets for holding stems and branches of browse. Easy!
We’ve covered browsing enrichment before, like this ultra budget friendly DIY bucket lid browse toy that swings from a tree or stall rafter. But this version is sturdy, permanent, and also looks great. It’s at home in any style of stable, from rustic to posh.
This is a half hour project, start to finish. Once completed, you can use it anywhere – in the stall, pasture, or bring it with you while traveling to keep your horse occupied away from home.
It’s also versatile. You can use any horse-safe browse plant for this board, so every experience will be a little different. For horses who need lots of stimulation and variety, it’s a perfect addition to your stable.
What is Browse and Browsing, Anyway?
We usually think of horses as grazing animals, but other plants are on the menu too! In addition to grass, horses regularly eat leafy plants including shrubs and even tree leaves, stretching up into the branches to reach them. Eating non-grass plants is called browsing and the plant material is called browse.
Often, we consider it a problem when horses munch on plants other than grass. But browsing is a normal behavior for horses. It adds variety to their diet, and the extra plant stuff is a good source of fiber and various nutrients. Your horse’s wild ancestors enjoyed leaves and twigs whenever they came across tasty species, and your horse appreciates the variety too.
Why Is the DIY Browse Board Good Horse Enrichment?
This enrichment item is great for your horse because it gives them a chance to browse and experience variety in a way that’s safe and works for you.
Browsing is great natural boredom relief. It gets your horse moving, using their brain, and developing coordination and fine motor control as they bite the tastiest leaves or reach up into the trees. Browse plants are also a great source of sensory variety – just think of the different flavors, scents, and textures of plants that aren’t grass.
But browsing isn’t always good for today’s domestic horse. Your horse may not understand which plants are safe to eat and which are toxic. If bored, they may chew or swallow unsafe parts of plants like thorns or sharp branches. And a browsing horse can cause damage to expensive landscaping or pasture trees if they’re too enthusiastic.
The DIY browse board gives your horse the chance to enjoy browse with none of the drawbacks.
You’ll load the board yourself with nontoxic, healthy browse plants. The board can go anywhere and you can install it at any height to recreate natural browsing. All the benefits, none of the headache – it’s a great enrichment choice. And it’s easy to make!
How to Make a DIY Browse Board
Tools and Supplies:
- Wooden plank or board
- Stainless steel pipe straps (see below)
- Small screws
- Philips head screwdriver or drill
- Jigsaw Optional – for making the curvy board shown here
- Orbital sander Optional but recommended for smoothing edges
- Wood stain or paint
- Browse plants
Step 1. Source and Cut Your Board
As long as you’re using a sturdy board or plank, there’s no wrong way to make the browse board. The board pictured is about 1 meter/3 feet long, but yours can be shorter or longer depending on where you want to install it. Your board should be at least 1/2″ thick.
If needed, cut your board to length. If you want to be creative, trace a curved or rounded outline and use a jigsaw to cut the DIY browse board into a cute shape.
Pointy corners and horses don’t mix, so I made this curvy, wobbly board. If you’re using a hand saw or circular saw, just cut down the corners as shown in the tutorial for the DIY Texture Board project.
At this point, you may want to sand down the edges to remove any hard corners or thin edges. It only takes a few minutes to go over the board with sandpaper or an orbital sander, and it makes the board extra smooth and safe. Here’s a nice, smooth board after sanding:
Step 2. Add the Browse Brackets
The secret sauce for this horse enrichment project are these stainless steel pipe brackets. They’re small so they’re perfect for holding softer twigs or several stems of herbs. I like stainless steel for horse enrichment because it’s rustproof – ideal for outdoor use.
If your horse is especially accident-prone or tends to rub against objects with their face, similar pipe straps are available in plastic for a skin-safer texture.
You can also use bigger brackets, or mix and match sizes on the same board to give yourself options for different types of browse!
Place the brackets all over the board, tilting them in different directions. Install using short screws and a screwdriver, or a drill:
Step 3. Install Your DIY Browse Board
This enrichment item can go anywhere you have a solid wall or sturdy post. I like to install items like this using a drill and screws so that they’re easily removable for repairs or to swap items in and out.
You can mount the board to a wooden fence, free standing post or even the side of a DIY scratching post, or solid wall.
Install the board at or above chest height. To simulate reaching into tree branches for leaves, install it higher – about your horse’s head height. Just don’t put it so high that you can’t add the browse!
Step 4. Add the Browse
Now the fun part: adding browse!
If you have access to open country or woodlands, you can collect your own edible browse. I headed out into my backyard for this project and collected horse-safe native plants and garden goodies.
You can use any horse-safe species of leafy twigs, herbs, and flowers for this DIY equine enrichment, but remember: safety first! Not all plants are safe for horses, and every region has a different array of wild plants. Don’t offer any plant to your horse if you’re not completely sure of what it is and whether it’s nontoxic.
Kitchen herbs, leaf lettuce, and twists of hay make an easy substitute if you don’t have access to safe wild browse.
Step 5: Enjoy!
After you’ve slipped the stems of browse into your DIY browse board, it’s time to invite your horse to enjoy the goodies!
First time browsers may be a little confused or just want to smell the herbs and flowers. That’s okay – enrichment is about giving your horse options while encouraging natural behavior. Let your horse discover the fun of browse and taste at their own pace.
Remember to remove any uneaten browse at the end of the day so that it doesn’t spoil or wilt.
Related Enrichment
Looking for similar ideas?
Try the DIY Bucket Lid Browse Toy for a free-swinging browse toy that uses reclaimed supplies.
The Treat Board Toy is made of cardboard, so it’s a perfect no-tool option!