Why does my TB chew all my P & R fences?

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alison247

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Last june I got a 16.1 TB on loan from my friend. She kept him on good grazing with electric fencing. At first he was just coming to me for the summer so she said he would be better off out 24/7.
We fell in love and I wanted to keep him so at the end of Oct started bringing him on to the yard at night.
Deep bed, large haynet but left his door open so he could choose whether to be in stable or on concrete , p&r enclosed yard.
When we had 14inches of snow for over a month he didn't get to see let alone eat grass and slowly demolished rails on my yard.
I understood he was bored and aimed to try and aleaviate his boredom and coated the remaining rails in cribox.
However he is now out again on very lush grass but is now slowly chewing through the fences in the paddocks even with cribox on them!
I have just had a quote for refencing my yard at £800!!!
So my love of my life now is NOT going to eat the new yard.
What can I do to stop him doing it again this winter?
Why is he still chewing now when he has loads of grass to eat?
Is it "catching" as I have noticed my livery pony has also started doing it aggghhh!!
I have also noticed he licks the soil around the base of trees, Is this related?
Thanks for any advice
 
There are various reasons that horses chew wood, including boredom, not enough roughage to eat or just plain habit.

You could try nailing tin on top of the fences? Put some branches in his field for him to chew instead ( I do that with my lot, they love it), or maybe tie the branches to the top of the fencing, so at least he's not attacking the rail itself. He could still be needing roughage...apart from the grass....could you put some hay out for him?

He might need his teeth checked more regularly than usual as wood chewing wears their teeth down quite a lot.
 
Because anything that costs Mummy,money tastes delicious.Cribox/Stopcrib smeared on the rails[wear gloves and don't rub your face],will solve the problem.
 
My mare started chewing wood when I moved to a new yard one summer so I did some research and worked out that she was probably deficient in minerals and vitamins. I started feeding her a balancer and within a few weeks, she stopped chewing! I now feed a balancer throughout the year!
 
I have a thin high tensile wire on top of my top rail, that stops them chewing that rail, but they then chew the bottom rail so that will now be getting another high tensile wire on it. I also use used engine oil on posts so they don;t chew those. I have branches in the fields but no tannilised wood seems the favourite. The other option would be to run a single strand of electric wire along the top rail and electrify it.
 
Thanks for the advice!
I think I will try the electric fence on top rail to scare him off, unfortunatly there are 3 large metal gates seperating the rails on the yard so wouldn't be able to do all areas at the same time.
Cribbox has been spread on all three rails, nasty stuff but he is still chewing through it!
He has also had a pasture lick in his stable since the snow - untouched!!!
He has adlib hay at all times and again hasn't touched that for over three days - so not hungry.
I will try pink powder next
Thanks
 
I hve recently bought a mare that cribs/windsucks, she doesn't really chew the wood but I have to keep her off it to stop the cribbing so I have tried cribbox which worked for one day but the next day she was back on them.

I also tried mustard, vinegar & horse poo! all of that only worked for one day and then she was back on it!

The only thing that has worked is an electric tape strung about a foot inside the fence. I have put electric fence handles at the gateways so we can get in and out of the field easily.

I have never tried engine oil!
 
I have ONE rail in my paddock, the rest is electric or natural hedging. He has 3 acres of grass to himself, natural shelter and horses in the next door paddock for company, a field lick and a stream to play in but he still chews the single rail from time to time. Tbh I think he just likes doing it, he doesnt crib exactly, or windsuck and in his box he is fine but this one lonely little post does get his full attention when he happens to be in that part of the field. He has plenty of fibre in his diet and is pretty chilled most of the time if carefully managed. I suspect its a bit of a throw back to his days in training (ex racer) because he will fence walk and box walk if things upset him, routine is key to keeping him happy. Not sure how helpful that is though.
 
My TB will chew the P&R on the yard when tied up for grooming & sometimes I've noticed him rubbing the back of his front teeth on it to dislodge chewed grass. He never chews the wood in his stable though.

This winter a new TB arrived & he began to chew the rails separating him & the others. This was during the snow & hay was provided. He seemed worse when they were standing either side of it.

I have noticed that when a rail has become "nagged", they seem to like to continue chewing it, even those who don't normally have the habit.

After the newcomer had started to chew the rails the other 3 all joined in & I painted creosote to the chewed bits to try & stop this infuriating habit. They just moved to the next rail!

The TB offender moved yards just after the snow & the others have stopped the chewing. I don't really know what made them do it, but don't think they were short of anything as the TBs were on Pink Powder at the time. May have been the snow as they had more time on their hooves as they didn't need to roam far for grass to chew.

Sorry, not much help, but I sympathise.
 
I believe some do it when they have stomach ulcers (possible in ex racer...) and I knew one who did it when stressed.
 
Tickles, I think you just hit the nail on the head.
My friend has always suspected he may have ulcers though he has never been scoped.
He has colic every so often although "touch wood" not in the 10mths I have had him.
She has owned him from age 6-10 yrs but didn't have p&r fences for him to chew on.
Cribox not worked and he is still doing it even on good grazing. I am just worried if I replace all the fencing that he has chewed he'll just ruin the new ones.
We are talking about 200yrds of fencing not just a few rails.
I have tried tape (not electrified) which didn't work. I guess I will have to buy an energiser and sap him.
I have 3acres of posted paddock so I will go mad if he does it to ALL the fencing!
Will look into pink powder if you think that will help.
thx
 
try a horselyx or a seaweed lick, also do you have any gorse growing round you? Horses love it, really good for them and keeps the occupied for hours. Do you have any logs you can put in the field for him to chew rather than the rails?
£800 sounds like a rip-off, can you do it yourself? Ive done it before and its not that hard.....
 
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