Creating do-it-yourself enrichment for horses is a great way to give your horse custom-designed enrichment items that encourage their natural behaviors. And DIY horse toys can be the most budget-friendly way to provide enrichment. The DIY treat board toy is a great budget horse enrichment project.
This simple project is a homemade treat board that you can make quickly and easily with free or inexpensive materials. It’s reusable and encourages your horse’s natural behaviors while preventing boredom. And it’s super cute – check out that carrot noodle mane!
Let’s look at why the DIY treat board toy is such good horse enrichment, and how to make one.
What’s a Treat Board Toy for Horses?
This horse toy is just plain fun. It’s a browsing board in the shape of a horse, with cutouts for a “mane” of carrot and cucumber noodles.
The treat board toy can be made of any material, but cardboard is easiest to find and work with. You can use any treat for the mane. Carrot noodles are fun, but your horse will love it with plain sticks of carrot, celery, or cucumber.
What Behaviors Does the Treat Board Toy Encourage?
Enrichment for horses is all about encouraging natural behaviors. The DIY treat board keeps your horse busy and encourages all of these:
- Feeding and foraging ( browsing )
- Exploration and investigation, experiencing novelty
- Sensory behaviors, especially the sense of touch
Why the DIY Treat Board Toy is Great Horse Enrichment
This treat board is versatile and encourages several behaviors that get your horse’s body and mind working.
The DIY treat board is a browsing board for horses. A browsing board is a solid piece of material such as cardboard, plastic, or rubber that holds treats, hay, or branches. You add goodies to the board and your horse will pull or bite them off bit by bit.
Browsing is a special horse feeding behavior. It means eating leaves and shoots above ground level – like tree leaves, shrubs, and bushes. Your horse gets most of its food by grazing, but browsing is also an important feeding method for equines. And this DIY enrichment is a great way to encourage this fun, boredom-relieving behavior.
The DIY treat board toy can be used in either the stall or the pasture. It’s great for keeping horses occupied and alleviating boredom. The board itself is made of easily workable material and doesn’t take much effort to create – but it still looks super cute!
Getting the goodies off the treat board toy requires dexterity and coordination. It also encourages your horse to think “outside the box” and explore their environment as they figure out how this treat puzzle works. By using the board in different places or attaching it in different ways, you can adjust the difficulty level to give your horse more challenge and encourage different, beneficial natural behaviors.
How to Make the DIY Treat Board Toy for Horses
What you’ll need
- Sheet of cardboard or foam board, 2×3 ft or your desired size
- Pencils or pen for layout
- X-Acto knife or utility knife box cutter
- Carrot, apple, cucumber or squash
- Spiralizer or noodle maker (you can use sticks or slices instead but will need the spiralizer to make the flowing “mane”)
Optional
- Paint and paint brushes or sponges
- Additional fruits or vegetables as desired
Step 1. Draw the Horse Design
Use pencil or pen to lightly lay out the shape of a horse’s head and neck. This shape is optional, but to make the sensory board exactly as shown here, you’ll need some basic drawing skills or to enlist somebody who likes to draw horses. It’s not difficult because the board is nice and big – as long as it has a curvy neck, long face, and pointy ears, it will look like a horse!
Your board can be any size. This one was nice and big though not quite life size, and I got it at the local dollar store in the craft and school supply section. The enrichment pictured was made from a cardboard presentation board, but you can use repurposed cardboard as long as it is clean. Foam presentation boards available at craft or general goods stores will also work.
It’s important to use corrugated cardboard or a foam presentation board for this enrichment because thinner cardboard (like cereal box thickness) isn’t sturdy enough to hold its shape and secure the fruits and veggies.
Step 2: Cut out the Shape
Carefully cut along your drawn outline using an X-Acto knife or box cutter. If you don’t have an X-Acto knife, you can also use a serrated steak knife from your kitchen – the edges will be a little rough but it works surprisingly well. Scissors aren’t a good choice for this project. Most scissors really struggle when cutting cardboard. X-Acto knife sets aren’t expensive and come in handy for lots of DIY enrichments, so it might be worth picking up a set – this is the exact set I use when creating enrichment.
If you mess up, no worries. Your horse won’t know the difference! Just be sure to take your time and cut safely, keeping your fingers out of the way.
Step 3: Paint Your Board
This part is totally optional, but if you’re being crafty, it’s fun to go all the way! Use craft paint to personalize the browse board. We used metallic glitter paint for this board and it turned out great. You can use any color or pattern that you like; get creative and have fun with it!
If you decorate, be sure not to use any glued-on pieces like googly eyes – these are fun but could be accidentally eaten by your horse. Stick to painted or drawn details for this project.
When the paint is dry, you’ll be all set to cut out the slots that will hold the “mane” of veggie noodles.
Step 4: Mark and Cut Out the Mane
Now, you’ll cut out the little keyhole slots that hold the veggie noodles that make the mane. This part can be a little tricky because of the tight curves.
You can cut keyhole shapes as shown here, or narrow grooves or u-shapes. The keyhole shape really helps keep the veggie noodles in place, and prevents them from falling out the top of the neck, but the circles can be hard to cut out unless you have a quality knife set. If the keyholes don’t come out right, simple slots will work almost as well.
Step 5: Make the Mane
To make the enrichment as shown, you’ll need a noodle maker or spiralizer. A veggie-noodle maker will create the long strands of carrot and other veggie that makes the “mane” on the board, but you can still make this project if you don’t have one. Cut your veggies into julienne slices instead – it won’t look as much like a horse’s mane, but your horse will enjoy it just as much! If you do have a noodle maker, either electric or hand-cranked will produce perfect veggie spirals for this enrichment.
I love the veggie noodles for this enrichment because they’re unique and add a special sensory experience to the enrichment. The noodles move around as the horse browses, creating more of a tactile experience compared to chunks of carrot or apple.
Spiralizers and noodle makers work best with thick veggies, so hit the produce section of your local grocer and aim for the bulk carrot bin – the carrots here are usually the chunkiest and make the best noodles.
You can also use other fruits or vegetables, as long as they’ll work with your noodle maker and are safe for equine consumption. Zucchini, squash, cucumber (the pickling kind with lower water content makes better noodles than the slicing variety), and parsnips are all good options.
Trim the ends off the carrot or other vegetable and run it through the spiralizer. Lift away the long intact noodles from any broken or shredded ones that won’t stay in the slots you made in the board. Keep the noodles bunched in the same direction if possible, to make it faster and easier to slide lengths of them into the keyholes of the board. You’ll end up with bundles of noodles like this.
Step 6: Put it All Together
It’s best to put the noodles in the board just before giving it to your horse. It’s best to put the noodles in the board immediately before giving it to your horse. As the noodles sit out, they shrink a bit and lose their spiral shape, and slip out more easily. Fresh noodles stay put.
Pinch up a bundle of carrot noodles and gently slip them into the keyholes you made in the board. If you need to, bend back one of the edges of the keyholes to make a little door for the noodles, and then fold it back into place when you’re done (this works better with cardboard than foam board). You’ll want to use enough noodles to fill the keyhole so that there’s a snug fit to keep the noodles in place and stop them from slithering out when you hang up the board.
Step 7: Play Time!
Hang up the mane event browse board anywhere you choose. Make sure it’s secure before inviting your horse to enjoy it, then let your equine friends explore.
Every horse may respond a little differently to this new and exciting enrichment item. Some horses can be nervous of new items with big bold shapes like this, especially if they don’t realize that the item offers them some food. If you think your horse might be a little unsure of this item, check out this article on neophobia, or fear of new objects, and this article on teaching your horse to use enrichment.
Where to Use the DIY Treat Board Toy
You can use this enrichment in any location. It’s great in a stall as a boredom buster, in a pasture to simulate natural browsing, or set it up as part of a pony party. Where and how you decide to use the board affects the way the horse uses it, creating even more variety in the enrichment opportunity.
On the Ground
The behaviors promoted by this enrichment when you put it on the ground are the simplest and easiest for the horse. Use this item on the ground to encourage exploration and grazing, and to introduce the board to nervous horses who seem intimidated when it’s at eye level.
Attached to a Wall or Post
Attach your browse board to something solid like a stall wall or wood fence post to change the behaviors the horse needs to access and give them variety in the experience. Attaching it to a fence post lets it bend and flex a little bit as the horse works on it, increasing the amount of challenge and requiring more dexterity.
Hanging Up
With some horse-safe rope and hardware, you can hang the browse board from an overhead object like a sturdy tree limb or ceiling rafter. This is the most challenging way to offer the board because it will swing freely away from the horse as they browse.
When you plan to attach the browse board to a surface or hang it up, you might want to get it into place before adding the “mane” so that fewer noodles fall out before you invite your horse to interact with it.
Safety Notes
This is a really simple DIY enrichment item, made of just cardboard or foam board, so it’s a safe option for many horses. Remember to use horse safe fasteners if you hang or clip this toy. All bolts or screws used to attach it to a solid object should be flush with the surface and have no sharp edges. Ropes or cords should be sturdy and attached out of reach of the horse.
This item may be safe for unsupervised use with some horses, but all initial offerings should be supervised. If your horse shows any desire to shred or mouth the board itself, don’t leave this item with your horse unsupervised. Free-swinging browse boards should not be left unsupervised with stalled horses.
And that’s all there is to it! With a little craft fun, you’ll get some craft time for yourself and create an enriching experience for your horse. Did you make this item? How did your horse like it? Or did you put your own spin on the device? Tell us all about it in a comment!
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