Preventing cribbing/wind sucking?

x Jilguera

x Jilguera

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Jiggy, my about-to-be-shared 5 year old Andalusian mare, seems to start chewing on wood in her stable and attempting to wind-suck sometimes when she is anxious or bored. As I am only at the yard 2 to 4 days a week, and she is sometimes not turned out for all of the others (I am not in control of this as I don't own her), I can't keep her occupied every day or during the night.

I would like to prevent these small habits from developing into more problematic "vices", but I'm not sure how to go about it, given the circumstances! Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks x
 
What a shame you can't explain about stereotypical behaviours to the horse's owner. She must have read about caged polar bears and the like weaving constantly from side to side to side as they slowly go mad (literally) from being in such an artificial environment. The same goes for horses. Windsucking, weaving, cribbing, all of them are caused by poor management. Horses need as much turnout as humanly possible and need to be allowed to trickle feed 24/7 to use their innards as thousands of years of evolution has dictated. Horses do well on routine too so this poor horse hasn't got much going for her. The stereotypical behaviours are the horse's way of attempting to deal with non horse friendly management. The repetitive action releases endorphins in the horse's brain that can dull the stress that is otherwise caused. The current thinking is that an owner should NOT try to stop these behaviours as this will cause even deeper distress. Simply turning the horse out more and feeding ad lib forage will make a dramatic difference but the horse may always remember the nice feeling from the endorphins and may still exhibit the same behaviour, though often to a much lesser extent.

You could remind the owner that the horse is likely to be suffering from gastric ulcers due to the stress and stomach acids and this can lead to an increased incidence of colic. Good luck hun x
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
The current thinking is that an owner should NOT try to stop these behaviours as this will cause even deeper distress. Simply turning the horse out more and feeding ad lib forage will make a dramatic difference but the horse may always remember the nice feeling from the endorphins and may still exhibit the same behaviour, though often to a much lesser extent.
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I've just bought a 15yo horse who has been known to windsuck most of his life. His old owner used to keep him in a lot, and I really don't think this has helped, as the owner before that kept him out a lot and he did very well. I've kept him in for the last bit of this winter as that's what he's been used to but as soon as it gets a little drier and warmer he's going to live out 24/7, even in the winter. I also feel he gets a little stiff in the stable so I just want him out where he can walk it off.

I totally agree with what you say, and I expect he'll still do it every so often on the fence posts! However at the moment I just let him get on with it because he is such a lovely horse, so laid back and if that's his way of coping with life then fine by me. :) Good luck!
 
Thanks for more information on it - I've tried reading up, but it's nice to get more straight forward facts in context (: Usually during the summer most of my yard is turned out 24/7, so pretty sure that this will apply to Jiggy too (:
As she isn't particularly used to the turnout, I don't know what will happen next winter, but hoping she will be out more. The yard is very good at making sure all horses have enough hay most of the time, so hopefully the habit will die out over summer (and not return next year!)

Thank you very much for the advice! :)
 
You cant really stop wind-sucking, my horse is 13 and has done it from being very young in a racing yard. She is by no means stressed now it is just habit.

A few tips though is to have two haynets in the stable one at each side of the stable so the horse can wander from one to the other as they would outside if grazing, preferably haynets with small holes so it takes them longer to eat the hay. Also stable toys, mine has a ball with a few treats in that she shoves around the stable and a Likit hanging from the roof also keeps her occupied.

I give my horse pink powder in her feed also to maintain a healthy gut so as to avoid ulcers and colic.

I have her teeth done every year and they are fine, so apart from the above I just let her get on with it and hardly notice it anymore.
 
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