I am new to the world of horses and my babies seem to be board. What can I put with them to play with. They have a ball in there, but it is not enough. Any ideas? 

There are some "toys" you could buy to help cure the boredom. Right now Socks has a Jolly Ball and an apple likit. Some horses including Two Socks dont play with toys, while others do.

Boredom can lead to some bad habits like cribbing, so watch out.

Let them have as much time outside to be horses and forage if possible, its good your asking and noticing their bored. I agree with last comment ,the last three horses i have gotten have been cribbers. I believe they were stalled alot and developed this habit . Mine are only locked in to eat and bad weather . Not practical for everyone i realize.

The Case Family:

Let them have as much time outside to be horses and forage if possible, its good your asking and noticing their bored. I agree with last comment ,the last three horses i have gotten have been cribbers. I believe they were stalled alot and developed this habit . Mine are only locked in to eat and bad weather . Not practical for everyone i realize.

I agree completely.  If they're stabled, they're bored.  Period.  Try standing in a closet for 24 hours.  You'll be bored too.  If they're out, they generally find ways to amuse themselves.  Just give them a safe space.  Our Morgan devoted his entire life to dismantling whatever he could get his mouth on, including taking the bolts out of the gutters of the barn.

I wouldn't worry too much about toys.  It's true that some horses love 'em and some couldn't care less.  One of my friends had a horse who could amuse himself all day with a saddle blanket that he'd throw in the air then run to pick up and throw again.  Go figure.   I've got toys all over the place and I've only seen one horse touch even one of them.  Zip spent about an hour clobbering Leo over the head with the Jolly Ball before they both lost interest.  That was about 10 years ago.  The ball is still there.  I move it whenever I mow the pasture.  The balls I hung in the stalls for the rare times that they're indoors are pretty  much untouched, though I swear I saw the mini touch his with his nose last week.  The do love their lick-its, but most of them have figured out how to eat them in one bite, so I don't refill them often.  There's nothing like a pony on a cookie high to really make your training interesting. 

Just give them lots of time to be horses and you won't have to worry about boredom, just your sanity. 

If you can, I would turn them out as much as possible. They will like to run around and play with each other, and graze if there is grass. Also, you could spend time with them and make things interesting. Maybe go on a walk if there are nearby trails or an unbusy road, or even around the stable.

I bought my horse a jolly ball, but he doesnt play with it. But if your horses are playful, they probably will.

LOL  That's hilarious!! 

I was sitting in front of Zip's stall one day talking on the phone.  He is a very attention-seeking animal.  I was ignoring him.  His feed bucket hangs on a strap.  I watched while he backed up and put his nose under the bucket. For a minute he just flipped it up and let it drop over an over.  Then he gave it a BIG push and turned.  He caught the bucket upright on his rump.  He did that two more times, then for the piece de resistance he flipped it and caught it on top of his head.  I was on the floor laughing.

I thought THIS was a classic.  The game went on for a good 20 minutes and repeated at the same time the next day before they got bored and quit. 

What a hoot!  And of course, you never have a CAMERA around when you need it!

I keep a camcorder charged and ready.  The bay window in my LR overlooks my  main pasture.  Somewhere I have a ridiculous video of my big Paint, Zip, with mini Duke.  Zip would pick Duke up by the fleece at the withers of his blanket.  He'd lift him until Duke's front feet were off the ground, then wait.  Duke would run like mad in a circle until the blanket couldn't twist any more.  Zip would let go, the blanket would untwist, and they'd start again.  The first time I saw it I thought Zip was abusing Duke (which was a hobby he'd been taking great pleasure in--Dwarf Tossing was his favorite sport ) until I saw that Duke was standing there waiting for the game to start again.  Too funny!

That's hilarious!  Any chance you could upload the vid to YouTube?

Mary

If I can find it, I'll give that a try.  No promises, though.  It's on 8mm, and I have to find the cassette.  You know how that goes!  LOL

My horses seem to love toys.  I have cones (harvested from along the road where they are obviously homeless cones) balls, squeak toys from the dogs, plastic water bottles and jugs, and my all time favorite, the corrugated PVC pipe from Home Depot.  Comes in 10 foot lengths for 10 dollars.  I cut them into various sizes and the horses, throw them, chew them, rub them on the fence etc.  CJ (buckskin) loves the pipes.  Ringo (pinto) loves cones.  I put a bunch in his corral and in the morning, he has dropped them each over the fence at Aragorn (black).  My mare puts her squeak toys in her water, then pulls them out and they squirt all over.  This seems to amuse her.

I also hang chains from the fences and hear them clang around all the time.  I have also needed to cover the water tubes with short sections of PVC pipe (the kind that are for joining sections) so the horses don't chew through the tubes.  These PVC sections then spin around the water tubes much to the horses amusement hour upon hour.  If the wind blows small branches from the trees, I give these to the horses.  After eating the leaves, they play with the sticks and chew on them.