Is this crib biting?

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Mabel98

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I bought Missy, my 5 year old from the breeder who said that although her dam cribbed, Missy had never copied. I have had her 6 months and I have noticed that she sometimes grabs the wooden field rails in her mouth and holds them really far back in her mouth. She does not suck air in and does not bite wood with her incisors. When she had her teeth done recently, my vet said that she had worn her front molars completely flat, presumably through this biting. Is this cribbing? She never does it in the stable, though she has metal on the door and a plastic manger. Thanks
 
If she's worn her teeth flat at her young age I'd strongly suspect she has been cribbing?? When my horse cribs he rests his upper teeth on a piece of wood (doesn't bite it) and arches his neck and gulps.

Does your mare arch her neck at all when she's grabbing the wood? She may be gulping air very quietly??
 
If her teeth are worn it is highly likely to be cribbing. However horses dont copy it! Horses on the same yard often do it because it is a man made condition and they are likely to be on the same management.

Limited turnout, long periods without food, cereals in the diet and insufficient forage are all causes of crib biting.
 
She does arch her neck when she does it so she may be sucking in air. I bought her from her breeder who didn't wean her until she was 2 and she lived out as part of a herd until I bought her. Even now she has only just started coming in at night (out at 6am and not in until 6pm) has company and adlib hay..she is a really happy relaxed horse, i can't see how her management can have caused it! I know horses are not supposed to copy vices but it does seem possible in this case.
 
If she was fed cereals at a young age, or any age, that alone can cause it. Or if there was very little grass in the winter, so limited food going through the stomach.

Endorphins are released when a horse does it so it can be addictive even if the management has changed for the better and the initial cause is removed.
 
Thanks, it doesn't bother me as long as she is happy, you wouldn't know she did it anyway unless you watched her closely in the field
 
Cribbing and similar stereotypical behaviours are linked to bellyache in horses that are managed in an unhorsey way. A horse is a trickle feeder so if it has to stand in a stable for long hours with nothing (fibre) to eat until the next hard feed which may be hours away, they get acid build up in the gut and can get belly ache which can sometimes lead to ulcers. I'd give your girl as much turnout as you can possibly manage and when she's in, fibre, fibre, fibre. If she was mine, I'd also start her on a course of Coligone to settle and line her stomach. It's marvellous stuff - you can PM H's_mum for details. Just a word of advice: stereotypical behaviours release endorphins in the horse's brain, which help it in a small way to cope with not being able to live a proper horsey lifestyle. Horses can get addicted to the endorphins so even if their management changes for the better, they may still crib etc. So what you are seeing may be the left over of your horse's post weaning management (despite what you were told).
 
Sounds to me like cribbing.

I bought my horse not knowing he was a cribber, he didn't touch anything and lived out all summer. He is still living out and will do all winter but now while waiting for food or being tied up for grooming/tacking up he bites the fence. It is more of an anger thing. The travel boots wrapped around the fence seem to stop him but the stable bandages seem to give him fun in ripping them.
 
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