The approach of summer means it’s easy to find one of the most versatile pieces of equipment for horse enrichment: kiddie pools! You can use a kiddie pool for horse enrichment in several ways, giving your equine a fun experience but also encouraging important behaviors. Here are five ideas to use kiddie pools for horses to create fantastic equine fun.
Kiddie Pools for Horses: What Is It?
First, let’s establish what I mean by “kiddie pools for horses.” Pools for kids come in various sizes and materials, but for horse enrichment use, you’ll want the simplest option available. We’re going to use a plastic swimming pool like this, minus the cute pups.
Let’s use the term “swimming” pool loosely because I’m not sure any human could actually swim in one of these. But even though this pool isn’t especially fun for anyone over the age of 1 or so, they are everywhere as summer gets closer. You can pick them up at any general goods store.
They’re also inexpensive, which is another point in their favor. Kiddie pools are lightweight despire their size, since they’re just made of molded plastic. These are all good traits for an equine enrichment item – so what can you do with them?
Horse Enrichment with Kiddie Pools
Enrichment for horses isn’t just about toys and swinging treat balls (though we LOVE those). Enrichment means encouraging your horse’s natural behaviors and letting them do the activities their bodies and minds were adapted to do.
A kiddie pool is a horse-sized, multipurpose container that lets you create several enrichment activities for your horse. This makes the pool versatile – it’s not an enrichment one trick pony.
A kiddie pool in your horse’s pasture lets you instantly present enrichment that encourages natural feeding, problem solving, sensory exploration, and movement. And it’s lightweight and easy to clean.
Any Problems with Kiddie Pools for Horses?
Safety is always paramount when planning an enriched environment for your horse. You’ll need to make sure that each kiddie pool based equine enrichment activity is safe. The ideas you’ll find below are all horse-approved and assessed for safety, but remember to keep an eye on your horse while they enjoy each enrichment.
Kiddie pools themselves are very safe horse toys. You’ll need to watch out for damage – most horses won’t beat up the pool on purpose, but as the kiddie pool gets older it will be more likely to crack. Also, bring your kiddie pool into the barn when high winds are in the forecast. These toys are very lightweight and can lift up and sail away in a storm.
When your horse’s kiddie pool has reached the end of its useful life, take it to a recycling center rather than landfill-bound household trash.
With that out of the way, let’s cover how to use a kiddie pool for horse enrichment! Here are 5 ideas to get you started.
Bobbing for Apples
With this enrichment activity, you’ll let your kiddie pool serve its original purpose: as a pool! This fun water-based activity is ideal for summer heat, and when all the treats are gone, your horse can drink the water left behind.
To set up a bobbing for treats enrichment activity, fill the kiddie pool with water and scatter goodies over the surface.
Bobbing for apples is interesting for horses, hydrating, and mimics foraging for food in a flooded field – something your horse’s wild ancestors may have done, but domestic horses rarely encounter.
The human version of apple bobbing involves trying to grab whole apples, but this isn’t ideal for horses – whole fruit is a choke hazard. Chunks or slices make a better choice.
Apples might not be a good option for horse anyway, if your equine has a metabolic condition that requires them to watch their sugar intake. If your horse can’t have high carb treats, you can still do this enrichment activity! Use wedges of cucumber, squash, celery, or even unshelled peanuts for a low to no-sugar activity.
A Better Feed Pan
When the water is gone, your kiddie pool can take on a simpler role: as an outstanding feed pan for your horse. Used this way, there’s no need to take the kiddie pool out of the pasture (unless your horse tends to pick it up and use it as a play toy). Instead, just use it in place of your horse’s feed bucket.
Why feed from the kiddie pool rather than a bucket?
The kiddie pool’s wide, flat surface lets the feed spread out. It’s also shallower than most feed buckets – it’s more like feeding in a supersized pan.
Eating from a flat surface, where the face and whiskers don’t make contact with anything besides the ground and food, is the most natural way for equines to eat. “Natural” doesn’t always mean “better,” but in this case, it’s probably more comfortable for your horse. Horses that turn buckets over have often learned that this is how to get the feed into a flat, whisker-friendly arrangement.
Additionally, when you spread your horse’s meal into the kiddie pool, your horse will take smaller bites of feed. This extends the meal, promoting relaxation and potentially helping with food anxiety.
When using kiddie pools for horse enrichment, sometimes the simplest use can be the most beneficial.
Crinklebox
But when you’re ready for a more energetic, fun equine enrichment activity, you can amp up the interest by turning your kiddie pool into a foraging toy!
Kiddie pools make fantastic forage boxes. A forage box for horses is just a container with a mix of edible goodies and, sometimes, inedible filler such as packing paper.
Your horse’s kiddie pool can hold a lot of packing paper filler, or a generous spread of hay. Place either of these options into the pool, then add a scatter of treats or feed.
Your horse will snuffle through the filler (paper or hay), looking for the goodies. This enrichment activity mimics seeking the tastiest young grass (mmmm!) sprouting beneath older grass or dead leaves. It’s an ideal way to provide mental stimulation and relieve boredom.
Containment Strategy
Kiddie pools are wide but shallow. This makes them ideal for containing other toys that are designed to roll around, like treat rollers or the Kong Wobbler:
Treat dispensing toys for horses are fantastic enrichment that prevent boredom and give your horse a lot of mental stimulation. Putting those toys in a kiddie pool is an even better idea! Using a treat-dispensing toy in a kiddie pool is a great idea for several reasons.
It’s ideal if your pasture is heavily textured or has long grass, where treats that fall out of the puzzle would get lost. Put the treat ball or Kongs into the kiddie pool, and your horse gets the mental benefit of the puzzle and all the rewarding goodies.
This makes it ideal for horses who are just learning how to use treat dispensing toys. Trying them out in a stall with fluffy bedding or a grassy pasture means that, if your horse can’t find the treats, they won’t be able to learn the right strategy. They may become frustrated or give up on using their toy.
Adding a kiddie pool for your horse’s toys solves those issues, and it makes it easy to locate the treat toy when your horse is finished. No hunting down Jolly Balls at the far end of the pasture.
Ice Ice Baby
When it gets REALLY hot in the middle of summer, try using your kiddie pool for an ice activity!
This enrichment activity provides sensory stimulation, and simply feels great on a hot day.
Grab a few bags of ice and empty them into the kiddie pool. Scatter chunks of treats in and on top of the ice cubes, just like the Bobbing for Apples activity above.
This enrichment activity for horses is interesting, unusual, and only costs a few dollars’ worth of ice. It’s also a really fun thing to do if you have kids around the stable.
With these five activities, your kiddie pool can play a role in your horse’s enriched lifestyle every day! It’s worth picking up a few of these pools when you find them on sale, since they’re so useful. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are endless options and ways that the simple kiddie pool can keep your horse active and behaviorally healthy. And that’s really something to splash about!
Enrichment Related to Kiddie Pools for Horses
Kiddie pools are an ideal base for DIY equine enrichment and foraging activities.
For more inspiration, head over to the Feeding and Foraging Enrichment page!