Enrichment for horses isn’t just about toys and treats! This DIY project brings the scent of all your horse’s herd mates into their stall. Social enrichment is ideal for horses who can’t get nose-to-nose with their friends, and this social scent board is soothing and engaging. Here’s how to make this cute DIY horse enrichment, step by step.
What is the Social Scent Board?
This do it yourself horse enrichment project is a sensory enrichment object. It uses several small suet cages to hold objects containing scent from your horse’s herd mates.
When installed against a wall, your horse will be able to sniff and enjoy the comforting scent of their friends, even when they can’t get near their buddies for real. The scent cages open and close, and can be clipped shut for extra security.
This item is a great choice for anxious horses, horses in confinement or away from home, or boredom relief for any stall situation.
What is Social Enrichment for Horses?
Social enrichment is a form of enrichment for horses that targets your equine’s social skills. It helps recreate social situations or the presence of others.
Enrichment for horses is all about encouraging natural behaviors. It might seem like most enrichment items are toys and treat-dispensing puzzles – and we do love those! – but other behaviors are important too. Promoting behaviors and choices is what keeps boredom at bay.
Socialization is crucial for equine wellbeing. Horses are herd animals, which means they must be kept around other horses – it’s one of the foundations of good horse welfare. But there are times when your horse can’t share space with others, and that’s where this enrichment idea comes in.
Why Does Scent Matter?
Scent is a crucial part of how your horse processes the world. Smell is much, much more important to them than it is to people. When they’re in a herd, horses are constantly receiving info about everyone around them by their smell.
Horses sniff each other when saying hello, such as when meeting a herd member over some grass or water. They get valuable info about one another by sniffing manure, and they can even smell each other in their hoofprints.
This means that the scent of other horses is an important element to include in your enrichment toolkit! For a basic guide to scent enrichment in general, check out this article.
When to Use the Social Scent Board
This item is best for horses who can’t have direct access to their herd members. This is an item meant to be used for horses who are alone, such as part of a stall enrichment plan.
Consider making a social scent board for your horse to keep on hand for any of these:
- Stall confinement for more than part of a day
- Travel to shows
- Hospitalization
- Quarantine
In all of these situations, nose-to-nose contact between your horse and their herd mates isn’t possible. Use the social scent board to give them the comforting scents of their friends.
How to Make the Social Scent Board for Horses
This is not a complicated build, but involves some tools and special items. Let’s begin with the list and go through the necessarily materials first.
Materials and Tools
- One wooden board, plywood sheet, or other backing material
- Small suet cages (as many as you prefer)
- Tiny cable straps/brackets OR wide washers (see note)
- Shed hair, hoof clippings, or rags rubbed over the other horses
- Optional: Paint, paint marker, or other decorating supplies for personalization
- Circular saw
- Orbital sander (optional but recommended)
- Sandpaper (if not using power sander)
- Cordless drill and Philips bit
- Small screws
Board and Scent Cages
The base of the project is a sturdy wooden board. I like using solid wood boards for most wall-mounted enrichment because they look good in the stall and are easily removable. You can build the enrichment board and swap them in and out easily.
Solid wood is best, but you can also use plywood.
The small suet cages create “scent cages” for your horse hair and other scenty bits. We’ve covered using them outside the stall as scent enrichment in this article.
For this enrichment item, you’ll use the small kind – just a few inches across. You can find them on Amazon here.
Hardware and Tools
There are 2 good ways to attach the scent cages to the board: tiny cable brackets, and extra-wide washers. The choice is up to personal preference. Tiny cable brackets look like this:
You can find them here on Amazon for about $8-9, or buy individually at the hardware store.
Washers are the wide metal rounds that go between a bolt and the object underneath. In this project, when screwed down they squish the scent cage firmly against the back board.
You can find fender washers on Amazon for about $9 (you’ll have some extras for other enrichment projects) or buy individually from the hardware store.
Step 1. Prepare the Board
This DIY equine enrichment uses the same style backing board as other wall-mounted project we’ve covered – like the DIY Browse Board and the Stall Scratching Board, among others.
Preparing the board is simple. If you’ve never used a power saw before, this is a great project to learn on! You can also outsource the cutting to someone else who likes making noise and sawdust, or use a hand saw.
Lay out your scent cages on the board to determine how long you want the back to be, or estimate about 10-12 inches of board per cage.
Mark and cut the board at the length you chose. Then, for safety, it’s best to trim down the corners:
I also like to run an orbital sander along the cut edges to round them down just a little bit. It looks nice and provides an extra touch of safety.
Step 2. Mark the Scent Cage Locations
Remove the packaging from the suet cages and place them along the board, marking the board at the corners of the cages or tracing their outline.
This will let you add cute detailing if you like, and if the cages shift around as you install them you won’t have to fiddle around with re-orienting them.
Optional Step: Add Horse Names and Details
I love crafting just as much as enrichment, so I made this social scent board with personalized horse names for each herd member.
A paint marker works great for this, or you can freehand with a brush and some craft paint. If you don’t want to add specific horse names – keeping it versatile! – you can just decorate the board with patterns or colors.
Here’s the board with all the names and little sparkles, but before installing the scents:
And, of course, decoration is optional (this is the part your horse doesn’t care about), so feel free to skip it and just move on to installing the scent cages.
Step 3: Install the Scent Cages
Place a suet cage on the board with the hinge side up and latch side down. This way, if the horse happens to pop one open, the door will still stay mostly closed and not stick into the stall space.
Using a power drill, carefully screw down either your wide washers or cable brackets. The screws should be not quite as long as the board is deep (not long enough to poke out the other side).
Each fastener works equally well. If you use washers, make sure they’re wide enough to press on the wire, or install them where two wires cross:
And if you’re using small cable straps, use at least two on opposite corners:
Repeat for each cage until all the scent cages are installed.
Step 4: Fill with Scent!
Gather up material that smells like your horse’s stablemates. Shed hair saved from the spring/winter shedding period is ideal – it’s clean and easy to work with and store.
You can also use hoof trimmings, trimmed mane and tail hair, or even a washcloth rubbed over each horse’s body, especially their face and belly.
Open each scent cage and insert the sniffy stuff, then close up the scent cages. If you have a curious horse, you may want to clip or tie them closed for extra security.
Social Scent Board for Horse Enrichment…Complete!
With that, your social scent board enrichment is done! You’re ready to mount it in the stall.
Because this enrichment item has corners that stick out a bit, I prefer to install it in a corner where rubbing is less likely. The corners of the suet cage aren’t more hazardous to run into than other stall features, but I prefer enrichment with an abundance of safety in mind.
This enrichment item is low key and very safe, and your horse doesn’t need to learn to use it like some other items. This makes it safe for unattended use in most cases.
With that said, it’s always a good idea to supervise your horse’s first few interacts with every enrichment item – just to make sure they don’t do anything silly!
Related Enrichment
This equine enrichment item is DIY, uses scent, and is great for stall use. Try these for variations on those themes!
Stall Scent Cage (for outside the stall)