My boy isn't digging to eat anything - he's in a sand
lot. It's also not habitual. He's only done this twice before
in a 10 year lifespan. He doesn't eat the dirt, doesn't try to roll,
just digs a very deep hole in a very short timespan (like 3 feet deep by 3 feet
wide in an hour). It's cute, yes, but I'm worried about stress to his
legs, possible stress to his stomach (don't want those ulcers to come back), and
stress to his brain.
My horses are also diggers. We have one spot
in our pasture that used to be an old cow yard about 25 years ago. It grows
the best assortment of weeds. My husband keeps spraying it, and we even have
reseeded it, but the weeds still come through.
This is the area the hoses love to dig in. I
watch the horses dig and uproot weeds and then proceed to eat the roots.
They must be especially good in the fall.
My horses have free access to minerals and salt
and they aren't doing it because they are hungry. I can only think that these
roots must be pretty tasty. I doesn't seem to cause them any harm, and I just
ignore it, and fill the holes once a year.
