Wind sucking/ crib biting neighbour - would you be worried ..

my three used to share a yard with someone else's three. the other three were three different breeds and ages and they all did it to a greater or lesser degree. owner was adamant that the oldest horse (the worst one) only did it occasionally and the others never until I filmed one of them on my phone to show her.
Bl00dy thing never stopped and she never told me before she moved in and her horses knackered the fence posts doing it and landlord was rightly livid. Was it down to copying or management? (restricted fibre, horses incapable of being without the others for 5 mins etc). Mine were stabled next door but not turned out with and didn't copy. If I wasn't in charge of my horse's management and one was moved in next door I'd not be happy tbh.
 
I have a windsucker who also cribs. I don't find it particularly irritating, in fact I allow him to do it, however he is outside 24/7 with others and has ample forage as well as being treated for suspected ulcers. He's a wonderful character, my pony and any other horse he has been with has not ever copied, however my pony now picks up and throws his feed bucket which he never used to do. Windsucking and crib biting is clearly not a 'habit' but more of a psychological coping mechanism highly unlikely to be learned or copied by any other horse.
 
My horse cribs and windsucks.. yes I find it annoying but I put it down to his racing days. He is currently in a stable yard of 6 and they can all see each other. Not one have ever tried to copy him. It annoys me so much that people think they will copy. Research that was done recently was that vices are responses to stress in horses or there bored. So if your horses are stressed or bored then there more likely to find ways to deal with that stress In whatever way they can. Whether that's cribbing or weaving etc. Eg if a horse is anxious they may box walk as a way of decreasing the stress. Weaving could be caused my frustration or excitement at tea. Windsucking/ cribbing could well be a response to been boxed 23 out of 24 hours a day full off energy. I partly feel that racehorses in boxes 23 out of 24 hours a day and not have a vice is like telling a child who has only had sweet all day to sit still and not get into any trouble!
 
Mine has been next to an ex-racehorse who windsucks, a weird big grey thing that would stick his tongue out his mouth and shake his head so his tongue would hit his cheeks??, a pony that started to windsuck after becoming bored in the stable and is now opposite a windsucker in an American Barn, and has been for a year. He hasn't even tried windsucking/cribbing, and I don't believe it's a behaviour that is copied like door kicking.

The only behaviours he has learnt/copied is how to open the flipping door. Which doesn't surprise me as he's a clever boy and I'm pretty sure what stopped him before at his old yard was the fact the door was a bit too high for him to get his head far over enough. He also taught himself how to untie knots, and door kicks when he wants attention. The door kicking also comes when he's stressing too, but it's not something I would say he isn't capable of. A lot of his behaviour he did on a lesser scale at his old yard, but didn't have the same chances/facilities (he was smart enough not to boot a stone wall and had moody mare next door who would have gone at him for it, I didn't tie him up outside very often as I didn't really need too.)

On top of that, something like door kicking is learnt by the horse getting attention when they kick a door. So if the horse learns that kick the door - someone pays attention to them they pick it up that way. Mine would have occasionally door kicked if it was dinner/lunch and he was the last to be fed/saw empty wheelbarrow walking away and his door kicking behaviour is just an extension of that. Imo, door kicking isn't the same thing as cribbing/windsucking
 
It depends on so many factors whether another horse will copy the vices of another.

Sometimes vices will only be copied when instigated by another horse and dropped as quickly when in non-vice company. Sometimes a horse with a vice will continue regardless of no others 'supporting' the behaviour.

It really boils down to the individual horse and it's management as to whether or not it will copy the vice from another. After all any horse can develop any vice without the influence of another horse.

Personally, I would prefer to keep my horse out of sight from those that do, in reality it doesn't always make a difference either way.
 
Interesting question, one I was faced with last year as well!

I have my horse in a shared/group paddock and we had a new horse join last year who was a wind sucker, the first one with the vice that I have had close contact with.
Now this horse would wind suck whenever horses were being brought in/our of the paddock, at the drop of a hat (although having better grass growth did curb this a little).

Several of us were originally worried about how it would affect our horses (were told to suck it up by the Manager).
Luckily I can report that none of the six other horses have even looked close to picking up the habit. I do keep a close eye on them though, but worry less and less about whether the other will "learn".
 
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