Help - Wood Chewing !

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cobtis

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Hello
My horse has taken to chewing post & rail fencing since she was moved in the summer. She is causing considerable amounts of damage. She is an older lady and hasn’t really done this before. She has a rather uptight personality and is very intelligent.
She did seem a bit unhappy but since has had a change of routine around 2 months ago, she is in overnight & on horrible days, has lots of hay, fed 2x daily (healthy tummy) and gets AcidEase & Coligone. Before this she was out 24/7
Since the change in routine I thought I’d cracked it and she’d stopped doing it. She seems happier and doesn’t chew in the stable at all.
However she seems to have started again, I’ve put electric fencing with a energiser round the rails but she has chewed a couple of posts rather quickly.
It should be noted that she is not in work currently due to having nowhere suitable to ride and the fields are extremely muddy & supplemented with hay. I am also not in a position to move her but open to other solutions
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions because I’m losing my mind over this. I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment and this is just making me feel so defeated, I also feel incredibly guilty about all the damage being caused.
 
When she is outside, is she on individual turnout or is it herd turnout? x

I would first of all look into something like crib stop to start gently breaking the habit, whilst you figure out what is going on to cause her to be like this.

The fact she is quite uptight but also quite intelligent, could it be her way of coping as she is used to being in work and she's not sure what to do with herself?

Baggs my 20 year old will take down electric fencing if he is left to his own devices for too long - I had originally planned to retire him early so he could live an easy life (he had it rough before coming to me, so I thought that it would be a lovely thing to do for him), when Rabbit my young horse came down, but Baggs made it known that he's the main man and he still wants to work 😂 x
 
AppyLover1996 said:
When she is outside, is she on individual turnout or is it herd turnout? x

I would first of all look into something like crib stop to start gently breaking the habit, whilst you figure out what is going on to cause her to be like this.

The fact she is quite uptight but also quite intelligent, could it be her way of coping as she is used to being in work and she's not sure what to do with herself?

Baggs my 20 year old will take down electric fencing if he is left to his own devices for too long - I had originally planned to retire him early so he could live an easy life (he had it rough before coming to me, so I thought that it would be a lovely thing to do for him), when Rabbit my young horse came down, but Baggs made it known that he's the main man and he still wants to work 😂 x
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Herd turnout with others she’s always been out with. I think you’re right about work, it’s such a shame I’ve got nowhere to ride - maybe I could try other things like groundwork to keep her ticking over until the ground dries up a bit. Hacking isn’t really an option as she doesn’t go alone, all the others she’s currently with are retired / non ridden, and we’re on a busy road. I also don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully retire her, I thought she might appreciate the easy life now but I think I’m wrong 🥴
 
I'm Dun said:
It can be a sign of ulcers, and given how and when it started I'd be suspecting that was the case.
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I thought that too which is why the acid ease etc but it’s just odd that she doesn’t do it at all in the stable (there’s plenty of wood she could chew in there) and has no other signs of gastric discomfort when checked over
I should’ve added to the original post that when she was ridden (when the ground allowed) it she didn’t do it either which also made me lean towards it being a behavioural habit or something
I will always keep this possibility in mind though as I know ulcers can have an insidious onset and can present in different ways !
Thank you
 
creosote the top of the rails (the proper stuff, get someone with an agri license to buy it) and then cut a few branches off various trees and leave them in her field and even some small ones in her stable.

my TB will chew out of boredom as the bad weather sets in and he has to come in a bit earlier (2pm rather than 4pm) and this is how we have minimised it:

24/7 fibre access, he has ad lib in stable and a big net in field plus decent grass

left some branches old fence rail, a cone, tyre and some footballs in field for him to chew and mess with

add salt to feed plus limestone flour, and equinectar to support hind gut

creosote the top of field rails

hung some small logs in stable for him to play with and chew, added a salt lick and hanging toys to same rope and scatter some grass around his banks for him to hunt for
 
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