You can try to stop the damage by installing chew guards or similar preventive measures, but a better fix is to figure out how to keep your horse from becoming bored in the first place. Time outside is probably the best equine boredom buster possible. Horses naturally prefer to graze most of the day, and when they’re grazing, they’re probably not engaging in destructive pastimes. Grazing is excellent for your horse’s mental health, and it’s often the best for their physical well-being, too.

The problem, of course, is that this isn’t always practical or possible. Many horse owners—and even boarding facilities—don’t have the acreage to ensure that every horse on the property can be outdoors all day. Or perhaps it’s winter and your horse doesn’t have anything to graze on. Or perhaps he needs to be kept in a stall while healing from a health issue, or maybe you stall him at certain times to avoid weather or wildlife.

Whatever the case, there are many solutions to the destruction dilemma. Here are six horse boredom tips:

1. Hay nets/bags

Many horses enjoy hay nets, and they offer a couple of benefits. For one thing, hay nets generally slow down the amount of time it takes a horse to consume their meal, which can help limit a horse’s boredom, plus it better mimics the grazing process of picking smaller amounts at a time.

Some horses simply love batting the hay net back and forth and tearing large mouthfuls of hay out of the holes, so it has a high entertainment value as well. Hay nets are relatively inexpensive, so you can’t really go wrong.

2. Toys

Some horses love toys, while others could care less. You’ll have to experiment to see if your horses enjoy toys, and if they do, the toys can be an excellent distraction from boredom.

Many equine toys—like the popular Jolly Ball and its kin—are made of soft, durable rubber and feature an equine-friendly grip that makes it easy for a horse to hold the toy in his mouth and wave it around. The sizes range from not much bigger than a dog toy to large rubber balls. Many horses love playing with these objects and catch on to the concept quickly.

3. Food toys

You can combine the concept of the hay bag (where the horse has to work harder to get the food out) with the fun of a toy by supplying your horse with a food toy.

These work like some dog toys, where you insert treats or licks into a toy that your horse has to spin or manipulate in order to reach the goodies. It can keep some horses occupied, and the entertainment value may last longer than a regular toy thanks to the incentive of the treat.

4. Music

It’s difficult to say whether horses enjoy music, but some researchers say that yes, it can have a calming effect. But much of the time, you probably don’t notice any particular difference in your horse’s behavior whether the barn radio is playing or not.

They certainly don’t seem to dislike music played at a lower volume, but you can try it out on your own horses to see. One study showed that horses seem to be most calm when listening to classical or country music.

And while music may or may not help with horse boredom, a barn radio can be helpful at times as a distraction. Perhaps you’re having unusual construction work, chain sawing, or loud machinery operating near the barn—if that’s the case, then turning on the barn radio can help muffle the sounds (at least partially) and provide your horse with a “everything is normal” atmosphere, especially if you normally play music while cleaning stalls or feeding.

Another case would be if a horse’s best equine buddy needs to leave the barn for a time; the music can be a distraction, or at least keep the barn from sounding completely quiet. You might also have success playing music during farrier or vet work.

5. Grooming

You can also help break up your horse’s day and introduce a diversion to his indoor time with regular grooming sessions.

Many horses enjoy this, and the time it takes to fully groom your horse’s coat, tidy his mane, clean all his feet, and comb his tail are all times that he’s being occupied and engaged, with less time to stand around thinking about which portion of the wall to chew on next.

6. Games and tricks

Finally, if you have a bit of extra time but don’t need to ride, you can enjoy some one-on-one time and keep your horse occupied by teaching him some simple games and tricks. Horses can easily be taught to bow, smile, paw, come, and to fetch toys on command. It’s mentally engaging for them, and can be useful for breaking up long blocks of time.

Stall time doesn’t have to be boring for your horse, and hopefully some of these ideas will help keep him occupied—and help keep the stalls and fencing intact!

The post 6 Tips to Help Your Horse’s Boredom appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

In the 12th episode of The Horse Illustrated Episode of Horses in the Morning, sponsored by Straight Arrow Products, hosts Glenn the Geek and Holly Caccamise chat with Cailin Caldwell, equine content manager for the ASPCA’s Right Horse program and Mary Towslee, a TV and movie industry horse trainer.

Hosts: Holly Caccamise, Editor in Chief of Horse Illustrated & Young Rider and Glenn the Geek, host of Horses in the Morning.

Title Sponsor: Straight Arrow Family of Brands

There’s an App for that!  Check out the new Horse Radio Network app for iPhone and Android. Follow Horse Radio Network on Twitter or follow Horses In The Morning on Facebook.

Cailin Caldwell, The ASPCA’s Right Horse Program

Cailin Caldwell is a lifelong equestrian who combines her passions for marketing and horses as the equine content manager at the ASPCA. Working specifically on the ASPCA’s Right Horse program, Cailin’s work is focused on educating and promoting adoption to the equine industry and horse loving public.

Cailin is a proud graduate of Colorado State University’s Equine Sciences program. She currently resides in Seattle with her horses and enjoys competing in the jumper ring.

Meet this week’s Right Horse Adoptable Horse of the Week, Class is Beautiful.

Website: MyRightHorse.org
Instagram: www.instagram.com/therighthorse
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheRightHorse

Mary Towslee, Hollywood Horse Trainer

Mary Towslee started her career as a gallop girl and assistant trainer at racetracks. While working in New Mexico, she happened upon TV horse training when a racehorse-based teen drama, Wildfire, needed well-trained horses to portray track life. After a brief break when the series concluded, Mary returned to the movie business.

Since then, she has trained horses for movies and television shows such as The Lone Ranger, The Magnificent Seven, Hostiles, News of the World, and 1883. She’s moved up the ranks to serving as “gangboss,” running the wrangler crew, giving riding lessons to actors, and handling horses on set.

Read more about Mary’s Hollywood adventures in this article from the April 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated.

Title Sponsor

We want to thank our Title Sponsor, the Straight Arrow Family of Brands, makers of Mane ‘n Tail, Cowboy Magic & Exhibitor’s, with over 100 years of grooming excellence. For more information about your favorite products, please visit www.straightarrowinc.com and find Straight Arrow Products at a tack shop near you!

The post Podcast Episode 12: Equine Adoption and Horses in Hollywood appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Towslee’s horse-crazy life started with backyard horses in Washington state.

“We always had horses from the time I can remember,” she says. “I was riding from before I could walk.”

She competed in hunter/jumper events until her junior year in high school, then convinced a racehorse breeder that she knew how to break colts.

“I lied and said I’d done it before, and fumbled my way through it, breaking a set of colts for her,” Towslee recalls. “Her husband trained racehorses, and I ended up going to the racetrack after that and grooming horses. Later that year, I started galloping them.”

Big Screen Serendipity

She spent the next decade as a gallop girl and assistant trainer at racetracks around the country. While in New Mexico outriding and galloping horses on tracks, breaking horses, and running a training stable, Towslee stumbled upon stunt horse training. Or, rather, it stumbled into her.

“I got into it completely by accident,” she says. “A friend of ours had been working on a movie job, and they needed some horses that looked like racehorses but were broke. All of my outriding horses were old racehorses, so they could still gallop around, but you’d say whoa and they’d put on the brakes. They were perfect because it was a racehorse-based teen drama, Wildfire. I started wrangling and renting horses to them and doing stunts.”

Wildfire ended after four seasons, and Towslee moved on to managing a breeding farm. She turned down a couple of stunt horse trainer jobs because she felt obligated to the breeding farm owners.

Then The Lone Ranger (released in 2013, starring Johnny Depp) came calling.

“I thought if I didn’t make the jump in careers then, I probably never would,” she recalls. “So, I went ahead and took a leap. I [left] my job and my house at the same time. I bought a travel trailer and went to work on movies, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

The Highs and the Lows

As a stunt horse trainer on the set of The Lone Ranger, Towslee worked with Bobby Lovgren, one of the most well-known movie horse trainers.

“There was a lot of liberty trick horse work,” says Towslee. “The movie had some complex stunt sequences that had to be worked out, and the director wanted as little computer-generated stuff as possible. The Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver, had to be on rooftops and jump from building to building. Silver [also] had to be in a tree over the Colorado river, so they built us one. Bobby had trained the horse to stand on a rail, so it looked like he was standing on a branch. Silver had to jump up into a train car and run through it while the Lone Ranger was shooting, so they built us a train car that was big enough.

“It was a process keeping things safe,” she adds. “You have to be pretty creative to figure out how you are going to get what they want to see on camera.”

The cast, crew, and of course the stunt horse trainers travelled to spectacular filming spots, including Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, and several locations in New Mexico.

But lest you think working as a movie stunt horse trainer is all teaching horses tricks in spectacular scenery, there are downsides to the work. Think white horses working in red sand.

“We had five white horses—I spent a lot of time washing [them],” Towslee laughs. “We were in Monument Valley in all that red sand, and there were windstorms. Our white horses turned pink, and when you’d wash them, they’d turn orange. And it was cold, so you couldn’t really give them good baths. It was just awful. I think they digitally fixed it; we couldn’t get them clean!

“We would be working all night and doing rain scenes, freezing our butts off,” she adds. “But you also get to do some really cool stuff as well and meet some really neat people.”

Horse wrangling work on A Million Ways to Die in the West and The Magnificent Seven, which included 140 cast horses, followed.

Stunt Horse Trainer Gangboss

Towslee’s first gig as wrangler gangboss came in the 2017 film, Hostiles. A gangboss runs the wrangler crew, trains the movie horses, gives the actors riding lessons, and handles the horses and actors on set.

“I would say the most important component to being a gangboss is communicating with the assistant director’s department, relaying that information to the wranglers, then getting them organized to achieve what the director wants to see,” says Towslee. “A lot of it is making sure everything’s safe for the horses around the cameras and making sure the actors are alright. Then we have other wranglers that are handling the background horses. Any time there’s a horse on set, we’re there.

“Quite often, we’re really close—if the camera sees half of the actor and half of the horse, we’re probably on our knees helping hold the horse still. It’s not always glamorous,” she adds with a laugh.

Towslee is one of just a handful of female stunt horse wrangler gangbosses in the industry.

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a disadvantage being female, but there is [also] no advantage to it,” Towslee says. “And it does have its challenges. I’ve been very lucky that my boss, Clay Lilley, has always had my back. Some of the cowboys have been in the business longer than me, although they have been very supportive of me. I very much respect their opinions.”

It’s easy to respect anyone who has the skills to work at this level—in other words, an accomplished horseman. Galloping scores of racehorses and breaking and training horses for decades goes a long way toward helping one speak horse.

“You do have to know horses: how they’re going to react to a situation and whether they’re going to be bothered by it, or whether you can use a situation to get the desired action,” explains Towslee. “You must know what drives a horse.

“Another thing is being a person that really pays attention to what’s going on around you all the time and can spot things that are going to cause a problem,” she continues. “Movie sets are incredibly busy, and there’s a lot of moving parts. We have actors on horses in very tight situations sometimes. You need to always have your head on a swivel.”

Favorite Co-Stars

If pressed, Towslee will name Sam Elliott as her favorite actor to work with.

“I worked briefly with him years ago, and now for the past five months on the series 1883 [a prequel to the hit show Yellowstone]. What a wonderful man. He possesses a certain humility and grace.”

But any conversation inevitably turns back to her horses.

“Pistol, a Quarter Horse, is fantastically talented as a movie horse,” she says of a horse she recently worked with while filming a series. “He’s like a Border Collie, he’s so darn smart.”

King, a Friesian cross, is another favorite who has been in half a dozen movies and doubled the main horse on News of the World.

Some of the horses know they’re performing.

“[Some can be] a bit of a ham,” says Towslee. “You have some stunt horses that you use for years and years. They’ve done umpteen Indian raids and bank and stagecoach robberies, and they just keep going. It never shakes them up. They’re in a whole league of their own.”

However, the work isn’t all fast-paced cowboy shootouts.

“Your background horses are basically walking from A to B all day long or standing tied to a hitching rail,” she explains. “A movie set has all these moving parts that are often very close to horses, so they have to be super tolerant of stuff.”

Temperament is the No. 1 trait Towslee and her boss look for in potential movie horses.
“Sometimes you’ll get a horse who you think is going to be perfect for the movies, and as soon as they set foot on a movie set, they’re like, ‘Nope! Can’t do it!’” she says.

“There’s a different energy to a movie set, with so many people and equipment and cameras. You try and introduce the horses to it slowly, but only your very best ones ever end up with actors [riding] them. They’re really special, the ones that make good cast horses.”

Variety is the Spice

No day as a Hollywood stunt horse trainer is the same.

“That’s probably one of the things I like most about it,” says Towslee. “I’m not good at things that are incredibly repetitive. Every day is different; it keeps your mind busy. I really enjoy that, plus the fact that I get to work with animals every day.

“The funny thing is, way back when, I always thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be cool to work with movie horses?’ And just out of the blue, I’m doing that.”

The post Hollywood Stunt Horse Trainer appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Lloyd Hayden, who is a double amputee, has been able to ride his Percheron-Friesian cross gelding, Bo, in the fields around his farm. For Cathy Florman, riding Heffner’s Mustang, Grace, gave her a wonderful escape from debilitating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) symptoms.

Building a Foundation

Heffner grew up on a horse training farm in New Jersey. Passionate about horses, she started taking lessons at age 7 and got her first horse at age 9.

“I would ride all summer and learn how to ride all different types of horses,” says Heffner. “That was probably the best education I could have gotten—learning that every horse is different.”

Heffner learned from Dottie Orzechowski how to ride in a variety of disciplines, “learning something well before you skip to the next thing.” She’s done everything from western and English pleasure to barrel racing, pole bending, team penning and other events—many of them on her horse, Clay.

“I try to stay really well-rounded,” Heffner says.

When she moved to Indiana in 1996 at age 20, she immediately got plugged in with horse people, starting with a woman named Sandy Blackburn. Blackburn was pregnant and needed someone to get her horses ready for a youth to show at the local 4-H fair. Heffner was able to get the horse prepared, and it was the start of a great training relationship, as well as friendship.

Blackburn helped Heffner buy her first small property, and the former massage therapist soon started her horse training business. She has since moved to a bigger equine facility, called Double H Horse Farm.

Mustang Makeovers

In 2008, Heffner learned about Extreme Mustang Makeover events. Horsemen take an untrained Mustang, and within 100 days, train the horse to ride, go over trail courses, and load in a trailer. The top 10 finishers also perform reining maneuvers and a freestyle. Heffner was intrigued and saw it as a great way to promote her colt-starting training.

Heffner has now done three Mustang Makeovers. The mare she worked with for her second event in 2012 was Grace, who placed fourth. Thanks to the mare’s talent and temperament, Heffner says Grace is her training ambassador.

“She does all kinds of tricks,” Heffner says. “She’s done western, English, barrels and poles. She has been in my house—she’s just amazing. I trust her with a lot of things. She performs at liberty, too. She’s taught me a lot.”

Special Training Leads to Healing with Horses

Drawing on skills she gained as a massage therapist, Heffner’s intuition has helped her sense when a human or an animal is in pain—and help them find healing together.

“With horses, I can look in their eye or see the way they’re moving and try to fill in the holes of their backstory,” she says. “I can see when something isn’t right. It’s been a learning process. I used to think training maneuvers had to work if done right; now I know a horse has to be able to do them physically, just like we can’t all be gymnasts.”

Heffner believes groundwork and a good foundation set a horse up for success under saddle. Grace is a great example of the kinds of horses Heffner enjoys bringing along in her program.

“The horse has to be kind and forgiving, and gentle,” she says. “I’m not saying my Mustang doesn’t make mistakes, but if she knows that I’m calm too, she’ll stay that way.”

Because of her experiences with the Extreme Mustang Makeover, Heffner also trains Mustangs and burros for the Bureau of Land Management.

“Through the makeovers, I saw what great horses the Mustangs really are, and how they need their stories to be told,” she adds.

Back in the Saddle

Lloyd Hayden has ridden horses and farmed all his life. After retiring from ironworking, for the last decade, he has managed his farm in Thornton, Ind. 

In October 2018, he lost both his legs below the knees in a combine harvester accident. But the loss has not kept Hayden from caring for his land—or from riding. He’s able to walk on his knees and use track vehicles around the farm. And by the following spring, he was back in the saddle, regularly trail riding in his fields or nearby state parks with his wife, Sue.

The Haydens raise Friesians and Friesian crosses. Four-year-old Percheron/Friesian Bo was bred and raised on their farm, and the couple trained him to ride prior to Hayden’s accident. He’s been able to ride Bo, but would need to get on from the bed of a truck, and it was difficult.

Knowing she’d taught Grace to lie down on command during the Extreme Mustang Makeover, Heffner was approached about training Bo to do the same thing. Because every horse is different, Heffner did not give a timeline and said the maneuver couldn’t be forced. 

It was a challenge for both horse and rider over 30 days of consistent training. Bo went home with the Haydens as they continued to practice, trying to get the mechanics right. Heffner worked with Bo a few more days, and finally, he was ready. She says the key is doing the maneuver in soft arena dirt.

“It’s a very vulnerable position for a horse to be in,” Heffner says. 

Heffner began training horses to lie down on command after watching John Lyons training videos; he told a story of how he taught his horse to lie down after breaking his leg on the trail when he couldn’t get back on. She thought it would be a neat trick—she didn’t realize it would be so helpful in allowing healing with horses.

“I always remember that story and how this skill may come in handy,” says Heffner. “Lying down has been mostly a novelty until now.”

Hayden says Bo’s new skill has made riding much more convenient.

“We’re thankful she did that for us, and we really enjoy riding,” he says. “[Bo lying down on command] really makes things easier for me.”

Amazing Grace 

Cathy Florman grew up on a farm and owned her own horse as a teenager. She got back into horses when her daughter, Rachel Griffin, became interested as a child, and last rode about six years ago. Griffin is a lifetime horsewoman and has taken lessons from Heffner in the past. 

When Florman began declining after her diagnosis with ALS—a progressive disease affecting the nervous system—Allison Sherrill, a Florman family friend and Heffner’s best friend, suggested a riding opportunity for Florman. Talking through mobility challenges (ALS depletes muscle strength and other important functions), Heffner knew that Grace’s ability to lie down and stand up on command would be essential.

“We made sure that [Cathy’s] head was safe, and we were supporting her,” Heffner says. “Once she was on, she couldn’t believe how much more mobile she felt than when she was walking on the ground. She had the greatest time.”

With Grace able to lay down, the last barrier to Florman being able to ride was removed.

“It was a great joy to go to the barn and see the horses,” says Florman. “It was so precious to me to be able to ride. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know I would be able to do it, and I didn’t know how wonderful it would be to ride.”

Once in the saddle, Florman remembered her years of riding and felt renewed, despite her debilitating illness.

“She just had that easy, familiar rhythm from walking,” Florman says of riding Grace. “There’s nothing that moves your body so naturally like moving with a horse. Before I got sick, one of my greatest pleasures was riding a horse. So being back [in the saddle], it felt normal. Like I wasn’t sick anymore. I could sit up taller. I could do it, just like I used to.”

Florman says her experience was truly life-changing.

“Something happens when you get on the back of a horse,” she continues. “Anybody that rides knows this. If you’ve had a bad day and you go ride, it transports you away from those problems. It’s just you and the horse at the rhythm of the walk. There’s something transformative about that.”

While she was on Grace, with Heffner and Sherrill beside her, Griffin rode another horse, and mother and daughter enjoyed each other’s company as they rode together.

“It was really nice to be above the ground, above my problems, riding beside Rachel, just walking and talking,” Florman says. “It was like life was how I wanted it to be.”

Dismounting was also a challenge, but Grace was up for it. Florman says Heffner’s calm personality helped her feel safe during the process. 

Florman also says training a horse to perform these maneuvers is an incredible gift for a disabled rider that can enable healing with horses.

“Teaching your horse to do this is one of the most loving and kind things you can do—it’s very much appreciated,” Florman adds. “There was no other way for me to be able to get on the horse. I am so grateful.”

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