Welsh gelding eating post and rail!

[marley1]

Hi all i recently moved my ponies onto there winter field, and my welsh gelding was being serverly bullied by my new mare

so hes in a fenced of paddock in the same field with 2 arabs next to him and 3 foals behind him, he has plenty of haylage every night a small feed and he has grass in his paddock but since moving him he has chewed all the way along the bottom rail of my fence, not just a little bit theres half the rail missing!!! He also seems to have been pacing up and down the fence?! I really don't know what to do to stop this hes going to eat his way out! I cant put him with the others as he was coming in every night with a new injury! Any advice hugely appreciated.

 

[*hic*]

Running tape down the inside of each rail will prevent him eating the wood but that's not addressing the real issue which seems to be that he's stressed by not being in with the other animals.

 

[lily1]

Have you tried painting the rails with something like anti crib? mine all chew fencing the only way I stopped it was to put electric fencing up to keep them off the rails.

 

[marley1]

We smothered the rails in "yum yum" but he seemed to like the taste! He was turned out alone last year and seemed fine hes surrounded by other horses, hes never been bothered by horsey company before. I thought about running electric tape alond the rails but i think he'd just chew the other fence (which isnt mine it's the girl next doors)

 

[somethingorother]

Mustard is good, had to put it on the rails to stop baby eating them when she's in the arena for a run. Only problem is that it's not waterproof.

 

[Booboos]

The best product I have found is Stop Crib (different from Naf's Crib Stop). It is a sticky, pink paste that you smother on the surfaces you want to keep the horse off. I haven't seen a single horse try to eat wood with the stuff on it, and even my husband finds the very smell of it disgusting! (can't say I can smell it myself though!).

It's slightly difficult to find, but try here:
http://www.levertonco.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh00...SSSC05#aESSSC05

 

[SFleetwood]

Put creosote on the fencing and a mate in with the gelding.

 

[Booboos]

[ QUOTE ]
Put creosote on the fencing and a mate in with the gelding.

[/ QUOTE ]

I *think* that the creosote that used to work brilliantly for this, is no longer legal for sale and the product that goes by the same name is a different version, no different from any of the fence painting dyes which most horses will just eat through.

 

[*hic*]

Well explain the situation to her and that in order to prevent your chap damaging her fence you'd like to put electric along it.

 

[Echo Bravo]

I found with my horses last year when I put them haylage they started to chew their stable walls. Put them back on hay and it stopped. I think could be wrong that haylage has more water content than hay and doesn't really fill them up.one of my mares was eating nearly a full bale of haylage the small ones that should last 3 days for a 500kg horse a day and she was still looking for more.

 

[SVMel]

The two most obvious problems have been mentioned, ie stress and lacking something diet-wise.

I read somewhere that wood chewing can be a sign of gastric ulcers (stress). Could not work out if the bullying horse is still able to make contact over the fence? If this is so, it could be that he is still stressed by the proximity of this horse. Or just by the change?

Sorry couldn't be more help, obviously you already know that simply preventing the behaviour is a short term fix and you need to find the root of the problem, hopfully leading to a resolve! Good luck

 

[Natch]

We had this: only happened when two playmates had to be seperated by a post and rail fence (they too got too rough, and were welsh!)

I really do think the seperation is the problem: is there not one horse he can have as company? Being in a field near to but not with others is okay, but doesn't allow them to exhibit all the natural behaviours they enjoy, like mutial grooming, and tail to nose swishing.

 

[lilym]

My welsh gelding does this as well!! he too has loads of hay/grass and a lick - yet he STILL does it......he must just like the taste, hmmmmmmm maybe a cheaper way to feed him, I could go to the woods and collect fallen branches LOL! I put some nasty tasting wood preservative on the posts to stop him as he was chomping right through them like a beaver!!