Bored Colt

Now that our rainy season has begun, I'm looking for ways to keep Boo entertained while he's cooped up. Our arena stays closed for days at a time once the rains begin, and I'm really grateful that our barn has lots of good space for handwalking, as well as a quiet private road just out the gate that we can adventure on.
But during those in-between hours, a three-year-old Thoroughbred needs something to do with himself!

I've been experimenting with toys - both store-bought and homemade - for the past week or so, trying to find ways to keep the Boo-ster occupied. He's got an Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Ball (for those unfamiliar, it's a 10" ball of grain stuck together and hung on a rope) which he licks and bumps around, but he's not crazy for it. If it were a bunch of carrots, well, different story!

I've noticed that he's really mouthy- like he needs to chew or gum on things, and I wonder whether it's a stage of tooth development he's in. He's got a corner incisor about to come out and probably lots of other assorted dental changes going on. So I got a thick cotton lead rope that the snap had come off of, and tied it in a big complicated knot around part of his pipe corral, leaving an end for him to chew on.

This was a HUGE hit. Bonus points too - Pie, who is next door, also likes to play with it. They mess with the dangly end (there's about 8" hanging), and work on the knot, and Boo sometimes just squeezes the whole knot mass in his jaws. Definitely some teething happening - he looks just like my daughter did when she was cutting teeth!

The last thing I tried was milk jugs. These, it turns out, are SCARY! And EAT HORSES! So instead of having them around for toys, we'll use them for training and desensitizing, for the time being.

Anyone else have ideas for entertainment for the kids while they're idle this winter???