Patent Application
20060201445
The present invention is a toy for a horse. In various embodiments, the horse can play with the toy while standing in a stall, corral, pasture or next to and inside a trailer.
Horses are intelligent animals that welcome opportunities to play and stay occupied. Unfortunately, domestic horses typically spend a considerable amount of time just standing in their stalls. Horses are typically grazing animals by nature and would graze most of the time if given the opportunity. However, domestic horses are typically fed twice a day. After enjoying the feeding, there is little opportunity for the horses to amuse themselves while confined to a specific area. Horses can become bored and destructive to self and property when confined.
What is instead desired is a toy for a horse to play with while inside their stall, corral, horse trailer, and pasture. It would be desirable that such a toy provides one or more hours of amusement for the horse, with the toy keeping the horse's attention over this period of time. It would be optimal to satisfy a horse's natural desire to graze over longer periods of time. In the case of horses with feeding associated ailments (ie laminitis, colic, ulcers) it is desirable to regulate feed over longer periods of time.
The present invention provides a toy for a horse to play with while standing in a stall, corral, horse trailer, or in a pasture. The present horse toy provides a system of slowly distributing hay to the horse, such that the horse must play with the toy for a one or more hours to remove all of the hay.
As such, entertainment is provided to the horse over the course of several hours. In addition, the horse does not lose interest in playing with the toy, as the horse is constantly rewarded for playing with the toy (by constantly receiving small amounts of hay). Also, by the horse playing with the toy filled with hay the horse is satisfying its natural grazing instincts. In the larger form, the toy can be used to feed the animal when the desired affect is to slow down the horses eating and simulate a natural grazing pattern thus occupying the horse's attention.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a toy for a horse, made from a bag having a plurality of apertures passing therethrough, the bag being dimensioned to hold hay therein, wherein the apertures are dimensioned such that small amounts of the hay protrude therethrough, but such that the horse can not remove all of the hay from the bag in less than 1 hour. In preferred embodiments, the toy requires at least 2 or 4 hours of play to release all of the hay therein.
In one particular embodiment, the present invention provides a toy for a horse, made from a bag formed from a plurality of cross straps connected together. The cross straps may be overlapping, and may optionally be arranged in a repeating over-under weave pattern; a layer pattern of horizontal and vertical straps; or a diagonal pattern of straps arranged in a layered fashion or an over-under weave pattern, wherein the overlapping cross straps are connected such that apertures are formed therebetween, and wherein the apertures have a maximum width of less than 6 inches. In some preferred embodiments, the apertures have a maximum width of less than 3 or just 2 inches.
The present invention is directed to a system that dispenses hay to a horse over a period of time (thus providing entertainment to the horse over that period of time). As a result, it is to be appreciated that various aperture dimensions and bag volume dimensions are contemplated within the scope of the present invention. For example, larger bags can accommodate larger apertures, whereas smaller bags will typically have smaller apertures (such that both relatively large aperture bags and relatively small aperture bags may both distribute the hay to the horse in relatively the same period of time).
The present invention provides a toy for a horse. Specifically, the present invention provides a system for distributing hay to a horse over a period of time, so as to amuse the horse.
In this regard, the present inventor has discovered a unique system that offers hay to a horse wherein a balance is struck such that: (1) the hay is provided slowly to the horse, so the horse can play with the toy for a long period of time; but wherein (2) the horse sees and smells the hay in the toy, to keep the horse motivated to play with the toy; and wherein (3) the hay is eventually all removable such that the horse does not become discouraged playing with the toy.
To achieve this, the present invention provides a bag with apertures dimensioned small enough such that hay protrudes therethrough, but is not quickly removable therethrough by the horse. In addition, the present invention preferably places the apertures close enough together that the horse views and smells a considerable amount of the hay in the bag.
In one preferred embodiment, the present invention comprises a bag formed by overlapping cross straps connected together. In one preferred embodiment, the apertures comprises roughly half of the surface area of the bag. This provides the horse ample opportunity to see and smell the hay in the bag. In such embodiments, the width of the apertures is the same as the width of the cross-straps. As will be shown, the cross straps (and apertures therebetween) are dimensioned small enough such that hay is not easily removable from the bag. Rather, the hay has to be pulled out a few strands at a time, providing the horse with an amusing distraction.
As can be seen, an attachment mechanism, that may include a pair of rings 21 disposed on opposite sides of the top of the bag may be used to suspend bag 20 within a stable (or corral, or off the back of the horse trailer, etc.).
Bag 20 in
In accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention, apertures 24 preferably have a maximum width of less than 6 inches. In various embodiments, apertures 24 preferably have a maximum width of less than 3 inches. In various embodiments, apertures 24 preferably have a maximum width of less than 2 inches.
In accordance with the present invention, cross straps 22 may optionally have a width from ¼ to 3 inches, or more preferably from ½ inch to 2 inches. In preferred embodiments, the width of apertures 24 may correspond identically to the width of cross straps 22, as shown. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention is not so limited. For example, the width of apertures 24 may be less than the width of cross straps 22 (when cross straps 22 are placed closer together), or the width of apertures 24 may be more than the width of cross straps 22 (when cross straps 22 are placed farther apart).
As can be seen, overlapping cross straps 22 may preferably include a first series of parallel horizontal cross straps 22A; and a second series of parallel vertical cross straps 22B connected together to form rectangular apertures 24.
In preferred embodiments, bag 20 has a width of 10 to 50 inches, and a height of 20 to 70 inches. However, other dimensions are also contemplated within the scope of the present invention. For example, bag 20 may be made significantly wider so that two or more horses are able to play with it at the same time.
As can be seen in
In preferred embodiments, cross straps 22 are made of polypropylene, nylon or cotton. Cross straps 22 may be cut from poly, nylon or cotton webbing. The present inventor built the bags 20 in
Preferably, apertures 24 are small enough such that the hay protrudes therethrough, but is not removable by a horse in less than 1 hour, or 2 hours, or even 4 hours.
Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in
