Is Your Horse Snuffle Mat Safe – or Dangerous?

Have you heard of snuffle mats for horses? They’re really fun toys and many horses love them. But are horse snuffle mats a safe enrichment choice? Let’s take a look at how to tell if your horse’s snuffle mat is safe or dangerous.

What are Snuffle Mats for Horses?

Snuffle mats are a toy for horses and a good slow feeder option for your equine friend. Fabric “snuffles” on a flat mat hold treats or feed, and your horse noses and shuffles through them to get the treats. If you’re new to snuffle mats, head over to this article called The Beginner’s Guide to Snuffle Mats for the full scoop on this awesome horse toy.

Equine enrichment is all about providing stimulation and encouraging natural behaviors. And snuffle mats are some of the best enrichment for horses! They promote calm and relaxed feeding, and give your horse a mental workout. Snuffle mats let your horse practice their dexterity, and provide them with an exciting sensory experience. That’s a lot of perks – plus they’re just plain fun!

Horse Snuffle Mats: Safe or Not?

As fun and beneficial as they are, snuffle mats and other enrichment items can be dangerous if you don’t select and use them safely. As a horse person, you’re already good at assessing safety in other areas of horse care, such as handling and riding. But how can you tell whether your snuffle mat is safe or dangerous?

Snuffle mats are increasingly popular for dogs, so they’re getting easier to find in stores and online. The problem is that the number of brands and options is exploding, and with so much selection there’s a wide range of styles and quality. Some are okay for horse use, but others are badly designed or cheaply made. They can’t be trusted to keep your horse safe.

You can also make a snuffle mat at home, especially if you like DIY enrichment or enjoy working with tools. Whether you buy or create, it’s important to keep safety in mind when considering a snuffle mat toy for your horse.

Read on for the five major points you should be looking at to know if the snuffle mat you own or want to purchase for your horse is safe enough for your equine companion.

What Can Make a Horse Snuffle Mat Dangerous?

First, a quick reminder of how snuffle mats are meant to be used. Snuffle mats are a slow feeding device for horses. Treats go in and on the fabric and your horse “snuffles” through the fabric to find the food, just like snuffling through tall grass for tasty plants underneath. 

Because they encourage feeding behaviors, the biggest hazard of snuffle mats is ingestion of pieces of the mat. Accidentally or intentionally swallowing part of a snuffle mat could cause a serious colic. Snuffle mats also come with a few other potential hazards to watch for.

Take a look at this sample snuffle mat.

Let’s check out why this horse snuffle mat is a safety nightmare.

1. It’s made of the wrong materials. 

Snuffle mats are usually made of fabric. The right kind of fabric makes your snuffle mat safe and effective. The wrong kind creates serious safety problems.

Safe snuffle mats use non-woven fabrics. Non-woven options for snuffle mats include felt and fleece.

This is important because most fabrics are woven, meaning they’re made of threads or fibers that cross over and under each other. When you cut or tear a woven fabric, those threads fray. And frayed material is extremely dangerous for horses. A horse can easily swallow loose threads, and this is more likely in a food-related toy like a snuffle mat. It can be hard for your horse to tell what is and isn’t edible, so the right material is important.

It’s possible to solve the fraying problem by finishing the seams on a woven fabric. This is why your clothes don’t just fall apart into threads – they have finished seams. But because a snuffle mat have lots of small sections of that resemble grass, finishing all those cut ends isn’t feasible. If you are making a DIY snuffle mat, stay far away from canvas, denim, cotton, and other woven fabrics. Don’t buy a commercially available snuffle mat with “grass” made of these fabrics. If you’re shopping for a snuffle mat online, read the description. You should ensure that it’s made of fleece, felt, or another non-woven material. 

But even a snuffle mat made from quality materials can be dangerous if it isn’t put together the right way. This brings us to our second safety problem.

2. It’s Not Sturdy Enough for Horses

Most snuffle mats are made for dogs. The problem with this is that horses aren’t dogs (okay, I hear all you mare owners – geldings ARE basically puppies half the time). 

Horses outweigh and outsize dogs by a lot. They’re big, powerful animals and can exert more force on their toys and other enrichment items than a smaller animal. This is why we design stalls, pens, and fencing out of strong, horse-safe materials. 

Your horse’s snuffle mat should be well-constructed, with quality thread and sturdy stitching. The fabric needs to be sturdy and thick.  Grab the mat and pull on it – if any part of it seems to give or the seams aren’t completely solid, don’t purchase or use it. Horses often play with items even if they aren’t “toys,” and if the snuffle mat falls apart, it’s easy for your horse to swallow small pieces. You want a snuffle mat that seems dense and heavy for its size, with tight seams. 

3. It Has Loose Threads, Feet, and Tags

On a similar note, check your mat all over for trailing fabric, strings, or rubber “feet” underneath. Snuffle mats for dogs have them for traction, but they are easily swallowed. You’ll probably use your horse snuffle mat in places where the feet won’t matter, so remove them before use.

If you’re making the mat yourself, triple-check for loose trailing threads or excess pieces of fabric, and cut them off.

Some snuffle mats come with a drawstring to bunch up the mat and change its shape. These strings make snuffle mats dangerous for your horse. It’s too easy for drawstrings to catch a horse’s hoof, or for your horse to swallow them. I love this inexpensive dog snuffle mat from Amazon and use it regularly (the felt material is great!) but you’ll want to clip that drawstring off before use with horses.

And don’t forget to remove tags and stickers! They can hide in and around the folds of the mat but are dangerous if accidentally swallowed. Find them and clip them off:

4. It’s Used in the Wrong Place

 Location makes a big impact on enrichment safety. Different locations affect whether your horse snuffle mat is safe or risky.

You can use a snuffle mat almost anywhere, but you shouldn’t let your horse snuffle on a sandy surface like an arena. The snuffle mat’s material sticks to sand and your horse is likely to snuffle it right up along with their treats. Sand and horses don’t mix because it can build up in their digestive tract, eventually causing problems like colic.

You also want to give your horse their snuffle mat in open areas without a lot of clutter and distractions. Snuffling is really entertaining for your horse and they’ll probably be really focused on the mat, and objects near their face can be dangerous if they lose track of where they are and raise their head suddenly. And if you want to use the mat in a pasture with more than one horse, you give each one their own mat to avoid equine arguments and anxiety. 

If you find that shavings or other stall bedding sticks to your fabric snuffle mat, you can try a similar enrichment item like this DIY egg carton snuffler. The carton snuffle uses paper instead of fabric. Try using a cardboard or paper snuffle toy in the stall, and save your fabric snuffle mat for the barn aisle or paddock.

5. The Snuffle Mat is Unsupervised

Even the best snuffle mat isn’t as heavy-duty as other horse enrichment like Jolly Balls. They won’t stand up to hard horseplay because they’re meant for foraging, not thrashing! It’s not safe to leave most horses unattended with a snuffle mat because of the risk that they’ll damage it when no one is around.

A ruined snuffle mat isn’t just a waste of money, it’s dangerous for your horse. They can eat pieces of the fabric “grass,” or get threads or parts of the mat stuck on a hoof, causing damage or panic. It’s always a good idea to be around while your horse uses the mat, and don’t forget to remove it when they’re finished. Snuffle mats are definitely a supervision-required enrichment item for horses. A supervised snuffle mat is a safe horse snuffle mat.

Safe Horse Snuffle Mats are Awesome!

The 5 safety points in this post might seem like a lot, but checking for snuffle mat safety is easy. You’ll make sure it has the right material and quality build before you even buy the mat. Then you’ll check your mat each time you fill it with treats to make sure that there’s nothing loose or damaged. Then it’s time to snuffle!  While your horse has fun with the mat in a safe location, you’ll keep an eye on them and remove the mat afterward. 

Enrichment safety is serious business but snuffle mats are all fun. With these safety points, you can use a snuffle mat to encourage foraging, promote calm, and provide a mental workout for your equine companion. Hooray for safe snuffle mats!