Wood Chewing

T

toomanyhorses26

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My seven year old tb has started doing this and it is driving me mad!!He had a stage of doing this when I first got him but put it down to being a bit stressed due to change of home and routine. He is out for 7-9 hours a day of ok as grazing can be at the mo and gets a scoop of enduro 100 ,scoop of alfa and 1/2 scoop of top spec flakes twice a day with a bucket of three scoops of good doer,two scoops of lfa a and a scoop of hi fibre nuts along with three sections of hay . He works six days a week and is reasonably fit. He has come through the winter well and seems happy in himself.I have criboxed his stable but he is out in a 15 acre field so doing it out there is a no go.Any ideas??
 
November has been done regulary since two (i think will check the paperwork I got with him) -general feeling from the edt is that his teeth aren't great gets alot of sharp edges and wears uneven although it has improved since he came out of racing -edt suspects change of diet may have helped - more forage ,less cereal
 
if it is something he has just randomly started doing then it may well be that he is getting sharp again. Youngsters tend to get v sharp v quickly and need to be done every 6 months to maintain efficient comfortable mastication (chewing)
 
will try and get hold of my edt - he's far too popular for my liking!!!
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nick coles - bloody brillliant!!! has got some of our more difficult ponies done without sedation and has always succeeded where vets have failed. He did my boy when he was racing as well so he knows his history teeth wise since he was imported
 
BHS membership magazine just out has a great article on stereotypies. It lists the main ones as windsucking/cribbing, box walking and weaving. It goes on to say that wood chewing is often thought of as a stereotypie but it is usually related to the horse needing more fibre in his diet or more time to do the inbuilt horsey thing of eating, eating, eating fibrous fodder. If it was me (coz I don't know enough about it, beyond some basic common sense!), I'd ring one of the good feed helplines to check whether your ned's diet is balanced enough. Maybe adding a pro biotic might help to rebalance his gut flora if he's recently had a stressy period: help him use his fibre better? Has he got the runs at all?

I've also experienced this in a very minor capacity with one of the liveries at our yard. When he wanted something to happen but was frustrated, eg wanting to come in or wanting his fave girlfriend out with him, he'd deliberately start stripping bits of wood off the fence. I saw this in the same vein as door kicking - the horse knows it makes people pay him attention - good or bad! Could your lad be missing something that used to be part of his routine?

Hope you can get to the bottom of it soon x
 
sorry to hijack your post but Vicky would this apply to a rising 2 year old as well? as my young arab is driving me mad with his chewing.
 
Both of mine love chewing wood - if there is a plank left out, they will be at it chewing away. Branches are devoured, and I have to paint the back of Farra's stable with a mixture of horse poo, mustard and vinegar.

They are fed on fibre only diet with ad lib hay, they are relaxed chilled out types and have plenty of turnout - even when living out 24 x 7 they will chew, hence we have electric tape round the whole field. I do give them branches and logs in the field.

They are both 5 years old so teething may be a bit of the cause. That said, our old clydie given a branch would happily chew away until all the bark was gone and he did this until the day he died. I think that some horses just like to chew wood - bit like some people like to chew gum.
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Thanks Victoria, I thought it might be down to teething but wasnt sure...I suppose I will have to try Teresa's pooh, mustard and vinegar treatment then?
 
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