Would you buy something that cribs

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RunToEarth

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Seen a horse which I really like, only vice is that it cribs. I'm quite confident that it won't be something the other horses will pick up on, and allegedly he only cribs occasionally after hard feed. I know plenty of people have horses which crib, I'm just trying to work out whether it is worth the hassle?
 
If it was practically perfect in every way and you could get a good look at it to determine how bad/what damage it causes then yes, it wouldn't put me off the right horse. That said, there may be a 'right' horse out there that doesn't crib.
 
I bought one and nothing has copied and he isn't really that much more hassle other than watching his weight carefully (TB) and getting the dentist every 6 months. It was s truggle on a couple of yards to keep weight on, but now on the right yard its easy and I am not sure the two are related as he has been checked for ulcers
 
Personally I would not I can't bear it .
If was I totally in love with the horse I would consider it IF it is really mild and only after feeding and the horse was a good eater in all situations ( after hunting for instance and it was a good doer.
I would factor into my calculations the cost of a course of gastroguard ( or the new cheaper drug as it's off licence now ) and the fact that I might need to feed a "tummy" supplement .
He would of course need a grain free diet and need to to eat lots of haylage or no haylage depending on what if anything effects him and have daily turn out .
I would question closely how they manage their horses if you see any holes so much the better these are things you can improve on , try to see his field and defiantly his own stable and look for damage .
The thing is I have seen the only does it at feed times said many times to hide worse What do his front teeth look like ? If he's an adult they should give you a clue .
He would need to be proven at his job and not expensive as well.
 
I have a cribber after saying I wouldn't! He is perfect for me in every other way. He only does it after hard feed or carrots/apples etc. he gets hard feed but not carrots, apples etc I find if he has a Haynet, he just eats hay after feed rather than crib.
My boy gets teeth done regularly and it has never effected his condition. I also had him scoped for ulcers but he doesn't have any.
If you go for it, please don't ever try to stop it. You won't! I have always mentioned it when looking for livery as some folk can thing it's copied and I was asked to put a collar on my boy. I didn't!
 
My old boy cribs. It does not seem to do him any harm and none of my others have copied him, but he did wreck the fence (wooden posts/electric rope ). We replaced this some years ago with P&R with a strand of electric wire running inside; I have had to put tape along the top of the (wooden) gates and need to Cribbox the posts occasionally. He is perfectly free to crib in his field shelter if he wants to. Sometimes I don't mind him doing it; at other times it really sets my teeth on edge
 
I would be wary, purely because of the link to ulcers and the fact that my old TB cribbed. She was managed with her gut health in mind (kept out 24/7, constant access to forage, treated with gastroguard, never had a collar) and only cribbed after hard feed or a treat or if she was stressed (hence the 24/7 turnout as she truly hated being in). She only had (carefully selected) hard feed in winter and hardly ever had treats, so her cribbing was at a very low level. Yet the ulcers killed her - they hemorrhaged and caused colic which was unrecoverable from.
 
Firstly, horses do not copy it. It's a stereotypical behaviour and the only stereotypical behaviour that has been show in studies to be copied by other horses is tongue lolling.

Secondly, no, I wouldn't buy a cribber. I had one for years. Treated him for ulcers and this did improve it, but it never went. Other people found it very hard to cope with. Post and rail fencing had to be topped with wire, stable doors took a trashing, certain yards wouldn't take him, I once had to move yards because someone objected to their horse being opposite mine (and they had two on full livery compared to my one DIY).

It was an unnecessary additional hassle of horse ownership.

Interestingly, initially I got his teeth checked every six months but the dentist said that despite the cribbing his teeth were wearing nicely. I used to get them done every 9-12 months for peace of mind though.
 
ETA: As other posters have said, don't try and stop it (e.g wearing a collar) it is basically a mental health issue and causing them discomfort of pain when they do it can be upsetting for them. Sadly counselling doesn't work on horses!
 
I have a cribbed. He did it mostly after his feed and mostly when he was in and sadly codices quite frequently. The day he almost had to go for surgery I decided something had to be done.
I had a metal plate made for the top of his stable door. It is too wide for him to get hold of and stopped his cribbing immediately. He does sometimes have a go when he first goes out but just 2 or 3 sucks. He is a happy, healthy horse with no other issues. It is worth a go as it was a cheap easy fix.
 
The best horse I ever had used to crib, and nothing, absolutely nothing would stop him. He did it when stressed, happy,relaxed, bored, etc etc. He had no health issues at all, was a dream to ride and handle and I miss him every day. When I first got him I was convinced I could break him of his habit, but absolutely nothing worked, so I gave up and accepted it. I got him aged 6 and had him pts aged 23 - he was an absolute star and his cribbing, in the end, just was part of his personality and I had no problem with it at all. I used to smoke (still do) and he used to crib.......
He would have done anything for me, except give up cribbing, so I just let him get on with it.
 
I looked after a cribber as a teenager. He was an ex-racer and racing had obviously been too much for him. Even years after stopping racing, he hated getting into a racing situation and would tag along at the back on rides, letting his Sec D friend go off in front every time. This was then followed by 6 months box rest when he did a tendon which, thankfully, ended his racing career but didn't do his mental health any good.

We managed him as well as we could - keeping him out as much as possible and plenty of forage etc. He had his teeth checked regularly and was scoped for ulcers a few times but was always clear. It did reduce over time but never went away and there was no pattern to it, sometimes it was after feed, sometimes it was after exercise, sometimes it appeared to be totally random. He'd go days/weeks without doing it and then suddenly start again.

When he was stabled overnight in winter from 10pm to 6am (luckily his owner lived onsite so could have him in as little as possible but he had to come in to eat as he was bullied in the field and wouldn't have got any hay) he was in an old bull pen that was made out of scaffolding poles so it didn't suffer, but he pulled branches off the trees in the field by cribbing on them so strongly.

He was apparently healthy according to the frequent checks but it was heartbreaking to see him so stressed and not understand why or be able to help him. This was harder than managing the cribbing so if you can cope with that, you can manage it.
 
My ex race horse cribs - at first I tried to discourage it - painting everything with cribbox, trying to distract him from doing it etc - he does it more after his (low starch/low sugar) feeds but will also do it in the field, in his stable, on his haynet (even though he has ad lib hay), on the lead rope when he is tied up etc
To be honest I don't really notice it anymore; he is a good doer, has never had colic, is a picture of health in every other way, no dentist has ever commented on his teeth being abnormally worn. I think of it as being like me sucking my thumb when I was young - its a comfort thing and now an ingrained habit, it doesn't have to be a sign of ulcers - many horses that don't crib have ulcers too! No horse is perfect and if this horse suits you in every other way don't discount him just because of the cribbing.
 
Bonkers2 said:
Why would they crib after hard feed?
Would that be any sort of hard feed or only cereals?
If they had lots of sugar free chaff would this help?
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I don't know what diet he is on, they haven't tried to discourage it, he is two years out of racing and has always done it after hard food - perhaps a review of his diet would help in a best case scenario.

Reading this thread has made me realise I only know the basics of it - that it isn't copied and that it shouldn't be stopped - I think I need to research further into the affects of it before I look at him. He is a really nicely put together horse who would make a cracking hunter for me, but before I waste either mine or his owner's time by looking, I need to understand a lot more about it and whether I'm prepared to take it on.

Evidently it needs leaving, and diet altering - does it take much management other than regular dentist checks - are you meant to scope for ulcers more often?
 
Yes - I did, and he's cribbed for the 19 years that I have owned him (he's now 23 and still going strong). He doesn't have ulcers and generally cribs straight after hard feed, but also does it out in the field, more so in winter when there is less grass to go at (even with hay in the field).
Only downsides that I have had are 1) wearing his front teeth down, the top more so than the bottom, I get his teeth done every 6 months and it's manageable.
2) The maintenance of the fencing in the field, so I try and encourage him to crib in just one spot rather than round the whole of the fencing. This is a consideration when moving livery yards, unless you are lucky enough to have your own land.
3) Being sure to remove rugs from over doors and when tying up, ensuring there's nothing within cribbing reach that he can damage :)

No regrets on buying him - he's given me so much and still does
 
I had an absolutely chronic cribber on loan, he probably kept weight on the best out of all the Tbs I have known. He didn't show any signs of ulcers other than that. Based on this I would consider it, he was a very very mouthy horse and chewed many a bridle/rope/person! He lived out and still did it on the fences, so prepare yourself for headaches when it comes to livery owners moaning etc if that is relevant to you. Some won't let you on their yard unless you use a collar which I don't agree with really. He had a leather one which was not the most awful thing but I didn't like using it (the owner wanted me to).
 
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If anything, having a cribber means you look extra carefully at how the horse is managed - which of course we should do anyway but it serves as a reminder that at some point this horse's life was less than ideal and they started cribbing to find some comfort. The 'perfect' situation for a horse that cribs is exactly the same as for a 'normal' horse - as much turnout as poss, ad lib hay/haylage, regular checks from dentist, attention paid to what you are feeding, etc etc. I would scope for ulcers if there were other symptoms as well, not just the cribbing.
 
We have had a horse that cribbed moved to our yard and he stopped immediately and has never done it since so although I understand this wouldn't be the case with some, the yard/management can be a huge factor.
 
no, I wouldnt. Noise drives me distracted. And IME, none of them improved with management (although none of the ones I know were diagnosed as having/treated for ulcers), all of them did it when turned out and all of them did it whether they had ad lib hay or not, none of them were on grain.
 
I have an incredible horse that cribs and I got him for a bargain. He doesn't do it that often and hasn't caused and health issues so a cribber definitely would not put me off.
 
mandwhy said:
He lived out and still did it on the fences, so prepare yourself for headaches when it comes to livery owners moaning etc if that is relevant to you. Some won't let you on their yard unless you use a collar which I don't agree with really. He had a leather one which was not the most awful thing but I didn't like using it (the owner wanted me to).
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He would be kept at home, which is possibly no better than moaning livery yard owners as our fencing is immaculate and I have to look at it each morning so I need to take that into account (I'm a bit OCD tidy!)

There seems to be a TB/ex racehorse theme to this thread (which is what he is) is there a link between that and the cribbing that has been proven?
 
cribbing yes if it passed a vetting and was cheap enough
wind sucking no-I only mention wind sucking a people as saying about a noise IME cribbers dont make a noise but wind suckers do.
most cribbers will stop when in a different environment and their lifestyle changes
 
There's more annoying noise-related vices that I can think of than cribbing! But all vices are just that - you would rather they didn't have them but somewhere along the line 'we' have caused the horse to develop these coping mechanisms. If you buy a horse with a vice and you manage to reduce it or even cure it then hats off to you; it gives me something to strive for and means I will continuously try to improve my horses way of life as much as I can but I don't think he will stop completely - its an ingrained habit now, my big beautiful 'thumbsucking' baby!
 
twiggy2 said:
cribbing yes if it passed a vetting and was cheap enough
wind sucking no-I only mention wind sucking a people as saying about a noise IME cribbers dont make a noise but wind suckers do.
most cribbers will stop when in a different environment and their lifestyle changes
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Crib biters make a noise as they suck the air in, windsuckers don't hold anything so are far harder to prevent from doing it.

Would I buy one, unlikely by choice but I did own one that started to crib, long before the link to ulcers was known, he never had colic in the 20 plus years I owned him, was a really good doer until age caught up with him and was generally not a stressy type.

I think Goldenstars post was really good, look into everything as a tweak to diet and management could make a huge difference, if he really only does it after a feed it may be very easy to stop with a suitable diet and is probably directly related to the routine in many racing yards of too much hard feed on an empty tummy and not enough fibre in the diet.
 
RunToEarth said:
He would be kept at home, which is possibly no better than moaning livery yard owners as our fencing is immaculate and I have to look at it each morning so I need to take that into account (I'm a bit OCD tidy!)

There seems to be a TB/ex racehorse theme to this thread (which is what he is) is there a link between that and the cribbing that has been proven?
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Mine was also an ex-racer. Being kept stabled apart from exercise while she was in training definitely had a negative effect on her mentally. The high concentrate diet they get is also ideal for bringing on ulcers.

I put electric tape on the top of the post and rail, but added a sacrificial piece of wood to the top of the gate in one field and made a 'cribbing station' for her in another paddock.
 
If it means you can get the perfect horse at a fraction of the price then it is probably worth a go if you are stabling at home (many yards not keen)
You also need to consider that they are also much harder to sell again, so not worth it for a shorter term/project etc.
I do know a couple of cribbers who are harder to keep weight on over the winter- but I am not convinced that their owners do everything in their power to manage it effectively either..
 
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