How do I relieve boredom in the pasture?

[Rocheal]

Trix is a 10 year old mare that I got from my horse trainer. She is a great horse-- has been to the mountains and rode for a week straight for eight hours a day. She was also his personal horse so she's been in small movies and such with him. She's great! You could imagine just how "broke" she is.

The only problem is; she grew up in a very populated inviroment. (Of course, after Ed bought her. I don't know where she was beforehand.) There are no other horses at our house and we live in the backwood country part of Mansfield so there is no traffic (Random people, cars, animals, whatever) to keep her busy. We have two outside dogs that annoy her and two outside cats that walk under her all of the time so she has them. We also have a very unique pasture-- some of it is a thick wooded area, some is completely open land, and the other side has a canopy of shade trees for her to walk through. She also has nice hills to work her muscles on and once we extend the fence she will have access to more land.

In the meantime I've noticed her eating bark off of trees and following me around like a puppy dog when I'm out there doing my chores. I know she is so bored but I don't know what to do to get her little mind working. I looked up some horse treat recipes and figured I could hang some throughout the pasture for her to find but I don't want to make her a treat head and she really has enough blubber on her cute butt. I could just hang carrots....

Any other ideas?

[christine]

I hide treats around and have a jolly ball that my horses love. Maybe you could get her another, cheaper animal like a donkey, goat, llama, or something like that. My horses have each other and cows and a buffalo to keep them company so I really don't have that problem but that is what I would do and maybe if you have the money get her another animal to keep her company. I know that goats are really good and so are llamas and donkeys if you want a cheaper companion. Hope that helps a little. Don't know what else you could do.

[An1ma1Lov3r]

Yea, I agree with Christine. Maybe try and get her a companion. Horses are herd animals and they love to be with other animals. Goats and llamas make really great companions. I have two llamas that stay with my 5 horses and I have one mule that stays with them. Hope everything works out.

[Rocheal]

The only thing is Donkeys aren't really THAT much cheaper. Their hooves must be kept up, shots kept up, food, water, POOP!!, and ect... I would Love to have one-- they're just awesome but I'd also like to be able to easily be able to care for them.

Maybe a goat would be a good investment.

We went out and bought her a Jolly Ball today. She snorted at it-- we'll see how this works out. I hope she enjoys it!

Thanks for the input. More ideas would be great.