Here’s an easy, budget friendly DIY hanging stall toy for horses. Is your horse bored in their stall? Find yourself wondering Does my horse need stall toys? Stall enrichment for horses is important for your equine friend’s physical and mental health…but stall toys can be expensive. The “Things on Strings” hanging stall toy is a fast, easy, and free DIY stall enrichment. Read on for why your horse will love it, and how to make it.
What is the Things on Strings Hanging Stall Toy?
The Things on Strings DIY hanging stall toy for horses is a length of sturdy rope or baling twine with slices or chunks of fruit and veggies threaded on. It looks like a hanging veggie kebab!
You’ll hang your DIY stall toy from an overhead rafter or tree branch. The finished Things on Strings toy will swing freely as your horse plays with it and tries to get the food. The swinging creates a little challenge, making your horse work a little for the treats.
The Things on Strings DIY horse stall toy is colorful and interesting, and gives your horse mental stimulation. It’s also free (other than the fruits and veggies). And it’s easy to make and use!
As a final perk, this stall toy is also excellent as a pasture enrichment. When used outdoors, it gives your horse the chance to browse. Giving your horse an enriched pasture is just as important as enrichment in the stall, so a toy that works for both places is twice as great.
What Horse Behaviors Does This Hanging Stall Toy Encourage?
Remember, enrichment for your horse is all about encouraging their natural behaviors. Enrichment provides the crucial mental and stimulation that your horse needs to be happy and healthy.
And the Things on Strings DIY hanging stall toy encourages lots of positive equine behaviors. It’s a great boredom buster. When you use it, your horse gets to:
- Browse, an important feeding behavior
- Solve a problem and use their mind (mental stimulation)
- Practice fine motor control
- Spend their time with a positive, healthy activity
Why This Stall Toy is Great Enrichment
Things on Strings encourages browsing, which is picking and eating plant material other than grass. It’s an important behavior for horses, but often gets overlooked.
This DIY stall toy lets you bring browsing indoors, or give your pastured horse some browsing time if you don’t have trees and shrubs available. It’s also a great replacement if your horse has the bad habit of munching on trees you want them to leave alone!
Image by Goran Horvat from Pixabay
The Things on Strings DIY hanging horse toy is also just fun for your horse. Most horses seem to love the challenge of catching the swinging toy and biting off a treat.
It makes your horse use their fine motor skills, and all their senses. Whisker work is especially important for this toy.
This horse enrichment item is simple to make, so it’s a great project for a budget minded equestrian. It’s also a fun kid’s activity. Little equestrians can design their own string with a combination of fruits and veggies, and then watch the horse have fun. If you have a horse birthday party coming up, it’s a perfect activity!
Lastly, this hanging stall toy for horse can be customized for the needs of any horse. Use different fruits or veggies for endless variety. You can make this enrichment item with low-sugar options like cucumber and celery for horses with metabolic issues.
How to Make the Things on Strings Toy
Supplies and Ingredients
- A sturdy string (baling twine is pictured but paracord or braided Dacron is better)
- One thick carrot (one slice of carrot is important for securing the food on the string; see below)
- An apple or other fruits or vegetables approved for your horse
- Knife and cutting board
- Stainless steel drinking straw (optional but highly recommended for punching holes)
Step 1. Cut the Veggies
Pick out your fruits or veggies and get your knife and cutting board ready. For best results, use a large, sharp chef’s knife to make the best slices.
Now prepare your fruits and veggies. Remove stem from apples and cut them horizontally into slices. Adjust the thickness of the slices to your needs – here, I wanted to make a little apple go a long way so I sliced them paper-thin.
Use the thick end of the carrot to cut at least one 1/2 inch thick slice, which forms a washer that keeps the other more fragile produce from falling off.
Slice other fruits and veggies. Shapes can vary, but pieces that are too narrow can be difficult to thread onto the twine without cracking in two or falling apart, so I recommend round slices or long rectangles, as shown:
Step 2. Prepare and Knot the String
Cut your string to about two feet in length. If using baling twine, cut the twine near the knot to make sure you have enough usable length. If your rope or twine tends to fray, wrap the end tight with a little bit of masking tape like the end of a shoelace. This is optional but makes threading the string a little faster and easier.
Make a large knot at one end of your string. If you’re using baling twine, you can use the knot where the twine was tied together, but make sure it’s quite solid and big, making extra knots over the top for bulk if needed.
You should have a two-foot (0.6m) string with a big knot at the end.
Step 3. Punch Holes in the Veggies
This is the fun part! Grab your stainless steel drinking straw and use it to punch perfect holes in the veggie slices.
You can use other tools for this job, like just jamming a hole into the veggie with a chopstick or using the big darning needles from the hanging lettuce browsing toy, but I really recommend the straw. It punches clean, small holes that are perfectly sized for baling twine or paracord.
You can find steel straws in most big grocery stores these days, but they’re also readily available on Amazon, which is where I got the one pictured.
Center the straw over the veggie slice and press down firmly to cut:
When you’re finished, push the fruit and veggie bits out of the straw using a chopstick or kebab skewer for easy cleanup.
You’ll have an array of goodies ready to go:
Step 5: Thread the Food onto the Hanging Stall Toy
To make the string toy itself, start with a slice of carrot about half an inch thick. Pull the string all the way through so that the carrot rests against the knot, forming a “washer” that will support the rest of the slices.
This is important to support the other, more fragile slices.
Now add slices of apple, veggie, or leafy greens to the string. You can be random in your design, or alternate the different types in a pattern. Use thick slices of cucumber or squash for extra height and leafy greens for added bulk if desired.
Continue until the string has reached the desired length. The string can be you like as long as the total amount of fruits and veggies is appropriate for your horse – this is your DIY hanging stall toy, so personalize it!
Step 6: Finish with a Fancy Knot
The best way to finish this stall toy is with a knot called a figure 8 on a bight. It’s a handy and really easy knot that makes a small loop. It’s secure, and easy to clip up and remove.
This knot has step-by-step instructions in the Lettuce Browse post, along with a how-to for making tie lines that will allow you to instantly and securely hang your Things on Strings from a pasture tree or stall rafter. If you don’t have tie lines made already, you can leave your string long and tie it off securely to a branch or beam instead.
Hanging Up the DIY Stall Toy
You should tie your Things on Strings overhead so that the food is at or above wither height. The loops and clips, if using, should be out of reach of the horse.
Any overhead location in the stall or pasture is usable and a low tree branch works great. Tie or hook the horse toy securely so that your horse can’t pull down the entire string. Loose twine and food don’t mix!
When in doubt, give your DIY hanging stall toy several good test pulls before letting your horse interact with it.
Using the Things on Strings DIY Hanging Stall Toy
Now it’s time for some fun! Let your horse try out their new hanging stall toy in a safe, quiet area.
Most horses will have a great time right away, but horses are often nervous of new things – even toys. This is totally normal. If your horse seems extremely fearful, find ideas here for working with their neophobia.
For safety, you should always supervise this toy. And you’ll want to, so that you can see stuff like THIS happen:
Things on Strings and Safety
The Things on Strings hanging stall toy for horses is safe when made as instructed. But it’s not a toy you should leave with a horse unsupervised.
Tying up this toy securely and tying solid knots are essential. It’s a safety hazard if the string falls down because a horse could swallow it.
You should also be sure to make this toy only as pictured, like a kebab. Don’t make loops or use multiple strings. Additional strings run a risk of trapping or cutting a horse’s tongue, and that’s definitely not great enrichment!
Observe your horse while they use their Things on Strings DIY hanging stall toy. Once they understand how it works, you want them to use the toy correctly. If they seem to prefer chewing on the string itself, take the toy away and use a different type of enrichment.
You might also need a different style of toy if your horse is prone to choke or has dental problems.
Related Enrichment
Things on Strings is a great enrichment item for relieving boredom. That’s crucial for the welfare of stalled horses (or any horse!). Variety in your toys is essential, so try adding these related enrichment ideas to your horse’s routine:
Stall Enrichment and Boredom Busting Ideas and Inspiration
All the Treat and Puzzle Feeder Ideas
Hanging Rubber Ball Toy that you can just buy and use – no DIY necessary!