Horses chewing wood, opinions please

[Enfys]

OK, bit of a debate going on here this morning.

The debate is...

Horses should not chew wood at all, ever, and if they do they should be fenced off to prevent it, or wear a collar?

versus

If there are no (sacrificial) trees for them to nibble on then it does them no harm to be provided with a suitable pole/log/branch.

We are talking about wood chewing as opposed to cribbing/windsucking. The reason for the chewing is irrelevant, it is the "should they, or shouldn't they?" question I am interested in.

So, should horses be permitted to fulfill a natural action or should they be prevented from doing so?

 

[Dolcé]

They should be able to if that is what they want to do! We have a couple who chew trees like mad, the others sometimes do but most of the time don't bother. I used to think it was because they were bored/hungry on our previous holding when they damaged quite a few trees but even now, with plenty of acreage (too much really) the habitual ones still do it quite a bit. We try to have large branches/logs in with them when we can so that they leave the trees alone.

 

[thatsmygirl]

Mine never chew wood!!! Tbh if they did I would look into diet

 

[eggs]

I think it is natural, although frustrating, for horses to chew wood. I have electric standoffs on our p&r fences but the trees are left unfenced. The leaves get eaten but by and large they leave the wood alone. If a branch comes down I drag them out into the field or the horses to chew on.

I was at a Tim Stockdale demo some years ago and he made the point that horses were designed to eat grass and trees.

 

[Archangel]

A tree fell over in my field and the horses stripped the bark off in no time. In fact they had a group knaw. Seemed perfectly natural to me so I am in favour of letting them do it. Not deforesting the entire paddock obviously.

 

[FairyLights]

they often chew wood because they lack salt.

 

[nosenseofdirection]

Cheaper than getting their teeth rasped. This is what they did before vets were invented. I would fence off any poisonous or sensitive trees and let them get on with it.