Common stable vices include:
Horse Cribbing
Wood chewing: Gnawing on wood out of hunger or boredom.
Cribbing: When the equine grabs hold of a surface with its teeth, arches its neck, and sucks in air.
Weaving: Rocking back and forth in a repetitive fashion, possibly a self-stimulating behavior.
Wall kicking: Kicking the walls of its stall with hind legs.
Biting: A nervous or anxious equine may reach out of its stall to bite at passers-by, human or animal.
Bolting feed: Eating food too fast without adequate chewing, this potentially can lead to certain
problems in the digestive system including choke and colic.
Circling: Like weaving, this is a repetitive movement, only the individual circles compulsively in its stall rather than just rocking back and forth.
Pawing or digging: The equine constantly paws with its front feet.
What is horse cribbing?
Crib biting is a horse vice.
The horse takes hold of any solid object with his teeth, arches his neck and gulps down air.
The horse will make a distinctive grunting sound each time he crib bites.
This behaviour is constant and compulsive.
As an owner, watching a horse displaying this type of behaviour can be frustrating and many worry that other horses will copy.
Once learnt this vice is extremely difficult to
eliminate.
This behaviour is developed out of bordom or can be a learned respose.
The main concern is the danger of collic to the horse,although there is a greater concern of severe colic in horse's that
wind suck
What do I need to do?
ยท Are you providing a stimulating environment to satisfy the horses needs?
If you have done everything- the horse has forage, freedom and friends but still behaves in this manner - go to
Cribbing horses - Remedies for stable vices
Why does my horse behave like this?
A horse that is stabled for long periods simply becomes bored.
There is nothing else to do.
They are unable to forage so crib biting is like therapy, a way to amuse itself and pass away time.
A horse watching another can also develop this habit.
Horse cribbing >> Home
How to relieve stress and avoid boredom for the stabled horse
What is horse weaving?
What is a box walker?
