How easy is it going to be to find a yard who will tolerate a cribber?

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doris2008

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I have had my TB 6 years. He cribs - although not much in comparison to how much he used to. I will not under any circumstances use a collar on him. He will only crib when there is something to do it on - ie he doesnt even seem to think about it now if there are no obvious surfaces. He used to seek things out to crib on.
Have posted below about how he is having to stay out alone now due to others coming in at night & current ban on me using a stable until i have protected it!
I dont have a problem with doing this - other than farmer has been fine until now as I have always replaced anything broken by him! Which has only been 1 gate!! He has most definatley changed his tune & its starting to feel like I am not so welcome anymore. I of course understand he doesn want excessive damage to his property.
Its VERY cheap to be there - £8.50/wk which includes grazing & a big stable. SO you can see my reasons for staying but I wonder whether I may just be happier having to travel further afield for more facilties & having more options re turnout. And obviously wherever I go it will certainly cost more!

I do wonder though how easy it will be to find somewhere willing to take a cribber? Anyone who has a horse who cribs, how tolerant are yards?
Or YO's & your opinions?
I would of course be happy to provide any electric fencing required to protect fencing & stable doors.
 
I have a cribber at my yard but she does wear a collar and the owner is happy for this! Having youngsters in the same row of stables i cant risk tem picking up this habbit

Can i ask why you wont use a collar ?
 
I think most yards aren't too worried about it, as long as, like you said, you pay for anything he breaks.
All you can do is ask about. It is a myth (in my opinion, waits to get shot down!) that horse "copy" this habit. Having worked on a yard for 10 years, and having seen MANY horses over the years crib, not one horse copied this habit... not even the babies.
 
£8.50 a week? that's mental! that's less than my livery charge a day! where do you live!?!? i want to move there haha!

but back to your topic sorry.. i don't think it would be a problem? i can only think of one yard i've ever been on that didn't have a cribber, and that was probably only because it was a small yard!

the only thing i would say though is often liveries have a lot of opinions on horses that have vices! but as long as you can take know it alls with a pinch of salt i wouldn't let it hold you back
 
I'm happy to accept cribbers/windsuckers/weavers/boxwalkers etc.

Collars are not a solution - they cover symptoms and in many cases make the horses uncomfortable.
As to copying behaviour - there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that horses to copy steretypies
 
A lot of yards won't take one on. Partially due to it causing damage, risk of other horses copying and also there is a high risk of colic. You could use a collar, or some yards may allow it if you use a full length grill that the horse can't crib on. does yours just crib or does it windsuck too?
 
As a YO I am sorry but I won't accept cribbers, cause far too much damage. I also don;t like electric fencing - in fact I hate the stuff - have seen far too much of it that falls down, causes injuries etc so my fields are all fenced with Post and rail fencing and wooden gate posts. I don;t want to look out on electric fencing as i don't like the look of it so would not have that around my fields to protect the fences.

You might be one of the nice owners - but I have come across too many liveries who say 'i will pay for any damage my horse did' but then are very reticent about paying.
 
Both my horses were/are cribbers and I have a piece of thick plastic tube over my stable door

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my manger has a peice of wood under it that I can replace that my mare uses when she eats and my door is propped open during the day, with a wooden bar across, which I supplied and my mare uses in if the desire to crib takes her.

cannot comment on the field, though I think she does have a favourite post.

Have to agree about the copying been a myth. In all my time with cribbers no other horse on the yard has ever copied them.
 
Mine does it. my yard is fine aobut it and nobody has ever copied her. I put a line of electric fencing up (sorry bosworth :D) along the line where she had poached a couple of bits at fence posts. She has never damamged anything, she doesn't lean heavily. I have a towel/old pillowslip over the wall in her stable so she can do it.
I got a miracle collar when i was at another yard which was less than tolerant about it. I swore she would never have it on again. I believe that they just get more stressed if they can't do it. She just looked so miserable and uncomfortable in it. I have read many posts on here which berate the collar too. The same yard put up a grill over her stable door so she couldn't do it and so that other horses couldn't see her. She was miserable as she couldn't see other horses and felt too claustrophobic. I moved pretty darn sharpish.

what do you have to do to crib proof the stable? £8.50 is great, cheap as chips :D maybe ask the farmer if he wants you gone or what can you do to make him think differently about you being there.
 
I feel a little more positive now! Other than his front gate & one fence rail he hasn't caused any other damage in his 6 years. I am one of those decent owners who was honest about his habit & happily paid the damage.

Tinks81 - I hate collars. It just masks it & I believe he will just find another way of getting his 'release'. When I first had him he had one on & honestly he looked 10yrs older!

No other horse we have shared the yard with has ever picked up on the habit! I dont really believe this theory.

Littleme - no he just cribs.
 
I do feel your frustration on this, we have a 6yo TB wind sucker/cribber, and like you I was reluctant to make her wear a collar. We did the supplements, the diet, the management suggested to stop the habit but though she's cut down, she's never stopped.

At the farm I rent we just let her do it and every so often replace the doors, she had the most massive upside down neck muscling you ever saw!

Then we moved her to a livery yard, at first she only had to wear the dreaded collar in the stable but then the YO decided she should wear it all the time using the excuse that the vet had told her the other horses would copy, which I felt was just b**x to get her own way. Luckily her husband was a reasonable man and just said they were scared she might damage the fencing if she started doing it, which you can't argue with, so she wore the collar all the time.

Then we started looking at other yards and most would take a wind sucker/cribber but all wanted a collar on, some wanted them on all the time, some only when stabled. So we moved her and bought her a Miracle Collar which she wears when stabled (which isn't often) and she seems a lot happier in it.

If I had my ideal she wouldn't wear one as I agree it is not good to mask or suppress this type of behaviour.
 
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Theres a cribber at our yard and he has one of those doors with the metal over the top so it doesn get distroyed ... but there has been a couple of broken posts in the fields due to it and well lets just say the owner wont fix them! And my friends horse started to copy due to being turned out with him (he is one of those annoying horses which copys everything and follows his friends everywere) but she now refuses to turn him out whilst the cribber is out so is considering moving yards ... he is one of those cribbers that windsuck whilst cribbing :/
 
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Lippyx said:
I think most yards aren't too worried about it, as long as, like you said, you pay for anything he breaks.
All you can do is ask about. It is a myth (in my opinion, waits to get shot down!) that horse "copy" this habit. Having worked on a yard for 10 years, and having seen MANY horses over the years crib, not one horse copied this habit... not even the babies.
Click to expand...

I'd stand by it being a myth tbh, my horse has been in the same box, around the same horses for 7 years - he's a cribber, and not one of the others on the yard has picked it up. He only does it after he eats, though, and the only damage he's done so far is wearing a groove into the top of his stable door! He wore a collar for a while, but he was so unhappy that I took it off.
 
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I don't believe horses copy stereotypies and I wouldn't have a problem with a cribber on our yard but I would take a deposit to cover any damage caused.

I don't like to see them in collars either tbh and I prefer to use a piece of drainpipe along the top of the door as prevention instead.
 
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