The 7 Best Stall Toys for Horses of 2026

Two hanging licks made the cut, and this is the one to start with: a purple hanger on a rope, a refill block dropped in, and a deliberately low-challenge design aimed at horses that have never used a Likit before. We rate it as the gentlest introduction to stall enrichment in this group, because there is nothing to chase and nothing to solve — just a block that has to be worked at.

It is also the quietest option in the guide. The holder swings freely on the supplied rope, so the horse does the work rather than the toy rattling around the stall, and there is nothing on the floor to step on. It takes a 1 kg Himalayan salt lick as well as a 650 g Likit refill, which gives you a way to keep a horse occupied without adding another sweet block to its day.

The running cost is the catch. The holder is sold on its own, so the refill is a separate buy and the thing you will be reordering — budget for the block, not the hanger. Hanging is also the only way it works; this is not a floor toy, and the horse needs it clear of the wall to follow the swing.

This is the toy for a horse with room to push something around: 20 inches of heavy-duty polyethylene cylinder that rolls on its side like a barrel. That size is the entire argument. It holds a real load, it takes a shove to get moving, and a horse can lean on it without anything giving way.

We found the wide screw-on lid makes it the easiest thing in this group to fill, because you can get a scoop into it instead of dribbling treats through a hole. The dispensing opening sits on the side and it is generous: bigger pieces and pellets work, fine feed pours out and disappears in minutes. Of everything here, this is the one that comes closest to being a permanent fixture in a stall.

What it is for, then, is the horse with space — a big stall, a pen, or turnout — and a habit of pushing things. It takes floor space a nine-inch ball does not, and it costs more than any other roller here, so it earns its keep on horses that wreck something smaller. In a tight stall it is furniture in the way.

Twelve openings, each 2.76 inches across, spread around a 15.75-inch ball: those numbers tell you most of what this is. It is a hay feeder that rolls or hangs, and the openings are wide enough for a horse to pull hay through in mouthfuls rather than pick at it.

Load it through the twist-lock lid, hang it from the strap and buckle that come in the box, or leave it on the floor. With hay inside it is a heavy object — the ball alone is over four pounds — so the strap is carrying real weight and is worth checking before you walk away.

For a horse whose boredom is food-shaped, we think this is the best answer here. It takes alfalfa or hay, turns one net's worth into an hour of pulling and pushing, and keeps working after the treats are long gone. The flip side of those wide openings is that hay comes out at a fair clip, so treat it as enrichment with a side of stretched forage rather than a replacement for a small-hole net.

There is a kind of horse that will not chase a ball but will lick a wall for an hour, and this is the toy built for it. The Stall Snack is a holder plus one apple-flavored block, hung away from the wall so the horse has to follow it as it swings and spins. That is a licking job rather than a chasing job, and for the right horse it is the difference between a toy that gets used and one that gathers dust.

Each block lasts about three weeks when it is used as directed, which sets a comfortable rhythm: hang it, let it wear down, swap in a refill. The apple flavor is the hook, and the swing is what turns a lick into real work.

One thing to know before you buy: a swinging object is not every horse's idea of fun. A nervous one may give it a wide berth for a few days, so hang it where the horse can inspect it without feeling crowded, and give it a week before you call it a failure.

The handle is the whole idea and the weak point at once. A horse can grab this ball, carry it, swing it, and fling it, which is exactly the kind of play a stall-bound horse needs, but the handle is also the first part to go on a horse that chews.

The ball itself is thermorubber and needs no air, so there is nothing to puncture or deflate and a tooth mark does not finish it. Ten inches is a useful middle size: big enough for a full-size horse to get its nose and teeth on, small enough to be thrown. It is peppermint-scented, which gives a bored horse one more reason to put its nose on it.

The praise and the complaints around this ball both come largely from big-dog households that bought it as a chew toy. That is a fair test of teeth and a poor guide to stall life, where the abuse is hooves, walls, and boredom rather than jaws.

So treat it as a play toy rather than a feeder: no treats, no hanging, nothing to solve. We recommend it for the horse that likes to carry and toss, and for anyone who wants a ball that survives being stood on. If you want a toy that does double duty, pair it with a dispenser.

Eleven inches of latex shaped like a chicken, with a squeaker that fires every time a horse bites down. It is not a leave-in-the-stall toy: the rubber is thin, a determined chewer gets through it, and a torn toy in an unattended stall is the last thing you want. Used by hand it does something the plastic balls cannot — it makes noise and movement at once, which is what gets through to a horse that is wound up rather than bored.

It is the cheapest thing here and the sort of thing we keep in the tack trunk, because it is the pick for a nervous horse that needs distracting before the farrier or the trailer. Some horses ignore it completely and some are frightened by the first squeak, so introduce it yourself rather than hanging it and walking away. The squeaker has a lifespan too; when it goes quiet, so does most of the toy's usefulness.