Crib biters/windsuckers wanted!!!

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mop101

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Hi all
I am a research student at the University of Southampton, and a carrying out a study examining the way that crib-biters/windsuckers learn to navigate round a maze. Essentially, there is evidence that this group have specific differences in the brain, and we can assess how this affects behaviour by examining their performance in the maze.
If you live in or around the Hampshire area, and have a crib biter/windsucker that I could use, it would be great to hear from you! I can come to you to carry out the study, it is 'fun' for the horse (I think!!) and it will only take a couple of days to run.
If you are interested, get in touch!
email - matthew.parker@soton.ac.uk

Thanks for reading!
 
Sounds interesting!

My boy is lame, so not a suitable candidate, but I'm sure there are lots on here who would be interested in your findings, so please post when you have finished!

Is it just the cribbers/windsuckers or all horses with stable vices this applies to?

Would teeth scraping on the walls count as cribbing?
 
Are they supposed to be more or less intelligient or just in different ways?? Sounds very interesting! My boy could come but it would be a bit of a treck from Yorkshire!
tongue.gif
 
Just the crib biters at the moment -- although there is some evidence that horses displaying other stereotypies may have the same (or similar) neurological differences. Teeth scraping doesn't really count -- it is the specific crib biting/wind sucking behaviour that we are interested in.
 
Not really related to intelligence -- it is more to do with different ways of learning -- they all seem to get there in the end!
 
wood chewing is often cited as a stereotypic behaviour, but really I need to stick to cribbers/windsuckers for this study. Thanks for you interest though!
 
I've got one on the Wilts/Berks border if that's close enough for you. I'd only do it if it didn't stress him out though, he's very wary of new things & has had quite enough upheavel the last few months. If you're interested then can you let me have more details of what's involved? I'd ate you to travel to us only for me to stop the test because he was finding it too stressful (sorry, but there is no way I'm risking more injuries &/or colics!)
 
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Essex might not be too far (depends how I get on with the locals!)

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yay.....your very welcome to "experiment" on my two
 
That would be great. I have carried this out with horses in the past, and never had any cause for concern -- really, all they have to do is walk forwards, turn left, and eat a few pony nuts! it's that simple. In every case, if a horse was unhappy or showing signs of stress, we would stop immediately. If you are happy for us to come and see you, let me know by email matthew.parker@soton.ac.uk and we can arrange a time/date. I would be coming with my academic supervisor Dr Debbie Goodwin, who has been working with/has owned horses for 20 years.
 
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