It’s important to keep your horses happy. An unhappy horse is more likely to be aggressive or withdrawn, develop habits like weaving, kicking, lunging or circling and have difficulties with training. Happy horses, on the other hand, are more likely to learn quickly, interact with their human friends in positive ways, and generally be friendlier to be around.

If you’ve found it’s difficult to make sure your horse is feeling happy, here are some tips that can help make a comfortable environment that is sure to make your horses feel better.

A stable routine

A routine can give a horse a feeling of comfort, order, control and most importantly, peace of mind. When deciding which order to feed, brush, train, walk, ride, feed and socialise your horse, look for what makes your horse happy and at what time of day. Once you work out the order that best suits your horse, repeat it in the same order every day to give them the comfort of routine.

Friends and visual stimulation

Horses are, by nature, social animals. If you keep your horse in a stable, try to stop in for regular visits so your horse doesn’t feel lonely. As well as having human friends, it’s important that your horse has other horses in their life too! Horses need stimulation so having friends around them will keep them entertained. If you can vary up their visual surroundings too, that can be helpful in keeping horses happy.

Purpose

Horses thrive when they have a sense of purpose. When horses feel non-useful, they may lack focus. Not every horse needs to be an eventing champ but appointing simple tasks as part of their routine can help horses feel valuable.

Reduce stress during transportation

Travelling can be a stressful time for horses so it’s important to choose a transportation method that caters to your horses needs.

Relaxation time

Horses need some downtime to relax and wind down after stressful periods. Let your horse stray away from busy environments and let them indulge in some alone time after a lot of action.

These are just a few ways you can make sure your horse is feeling happy. If you have tips that help your horse stay happy, let us know on Facebook!