What is Enrichment?
Enrichment simply means that we provide a more stimulating environment for our horses, to help improve their mental and physical wellbeing, by stimulating their natural instincts.
Enrichment comes in many forms and can be split between five main categories – sensory, social, food-Based, environmental and cognitive.
We can help to improve our horse’s mental and physical well-being through the exploration of smell, taste, grazing and foraging, movement and social interaction.
It’s important to highlight that enrichment is not about preventing boredom. It’s about understanding our horse’s natural behaviours and providing the opportunity for them to express these behaviours.
The ultimate aim of enrichment is to improve the horse’s quality of life.

Why is it important?
We know that an essential factor of good equine welfare is the opportunity for our horses to express natural behaviours. In a domesticated setting it can be difficult to ensure these equine needs are met, so by providing appropriate enrichment, we can help our horses thrive in their environment and live a fulfilling life.
In a natural environment, horses will be almost continuously active, walking distances of up to 30km per day and grazing or browsing for 16 to 18 hours per day.
Enrichment helps to reduce inactivity and helps to stimulate the horses natural foraging instincts and other natural behaviours.
When a horse’s behaviour is restricted, they are unable to carry out these essential locomotory and grazing behaviours, which has a negative impact on both their mental and physical health and could result in the development of behaviour problems.
How do we implement enrichment?
We can use enrichment techniques to meet our horses needs in a variety of ways. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Remember…
When providing your horse with new enrichment items it is important to monitor them for any signs of frustration, since this would have a negative impact on their welfare.
Some horses may initially need some help in learning how to problem solve when provided with new enrichment items so their behaviour should be monitored closely.
Enrichment items should also be changed regularly, ideally on a daily basis to prevent the horse from becoming disinterested in them.
Enrichment is a vital part of ensuring positive welfare for our horses and should be part of our normal daily routine rather than being considered as an optional luxury.
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