Horse cribbing is a horse’s bad mannerism that does not only drive owners crazy but does real damage to the horse and stable too. The behavior is caused by several factors, and the sad part is there’s no one horse training technique that can eliminate it. Horse cribbing needs proper management or the damages it can cause are enough to make an owner throw the towel.

What is Cribbing

Horse cribbing is a repetitive horse behavior characterized by a horse pressing in its teeth against some object, flexes its neck muscle, an sucking in air back to its throat before releasing the air out at once. It may seem an innocent habit but it’s destructive to the horse’s psyche and body, and it’s destructive to the objects around the horse too.

What are the Causes of Cribbing

Horse cribbing do not discriminate horses. Regardless of breed and training, all horses can learn cribbing. But certain situations are associated with horses that crib:

Boredom

Horses are social animals that like to be with a herd than live alone in the stable for several days at a time. A horse needs to see other herd companions, or it could get bored, which is the number one situation associated with cribbing. Horses left alone in stables for several days at a time are prone to crib than other horses regardless of horse training.

Lack of Gazing

Grazing is an essential horse routine that satisfies a horse’s psychological and nutritional needs. If a horse is not allowed to graze, it develops behavioral issues including cribbing. Although it doesn’t mean that not allowing a horse to graze will result to cribbing, it does increases the likelihood of cribbing to the animal.

Addiction

Horse cribbing is very addictive. The action releases endorphins in horses giving them temporary euphoric feeling. So once a horse cribs, it’s very difficult to train the animal to stop the habit. It’s all the more reason to prevent a horse from trying to crib in the first place.

Is Cribbing a Learned Behavior

Scientists did a research to find out whether horse cribbing is a learned behavior or not. But they failed to prove the correlation: it’s still safe to say that cribbing is not a “horsie see, horsie do” type of behavior. But the fact remains that discriminating horse buyers tend to avoid horses housed in the same stable with a horse who crib.

Bad Effects of Cribbing

If you’re a horse owner who witness the behavior on your animal, then you know how annoying—and worrying—it is to watch a horse crib. Aside from that, horse cribbing does real damage like the following:

Cribbing Wears Horse’s Teeth

Horse cribbing wears down a horse’s teeth to the point where a horse can’t chew its feed properly. Cribbing is also damaging to a horse’s gum to the point that it may need veterinary attention.

Cribbing Causes Weight Loss

Horse cribbing is also associated with weight loss among horses. To begin with, horses that crib are highly energetic; they have problem keeping their weight. Moreover, some very addicted cribbers spend more time cribbing than eating, which worsens the problem.

Cribbing Damages Things

Above all, cribbing can be costly not just in terms of horse training to stop the behavior, but to repair or replace the objects that a cribber damaged with its addictive behavior. Cribbing damages stable and whatever objects that a horse comes near to.

At the end of the day, horse cribbing is an addictive horse behavior that needs to be stopped before it even starts. If you’re a horse owner, it’s good to enroll your horse in a proven horse training program that not only entertains your horse, but teaches it to forget about cribbing altogether.