Page 75 - November 2021

EQUINE HEALTH
“We don’t really know if cribbing makes horses more prone to colic or if these horses already have digestive upsets and are prone to colic and this made them more likely to crib.” - Carissa Wickens, PhD, PAS
There may be a genetic factor along with environmental stress.
Cribbers place their incisor teeth on a horizontal surface, arch their neck to open the throat, and draw air into the upper part of the esophagus with a grunting sound and a backward pull of the head.
RISK FACTORS, PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT
There may be a genetic predisposition to cribbing. Some family lines of horses seem more prone to cribbing if they are in a stressful or unnatural environment. It might seem like foals learn the habit by mimicking their mothers, but in some situations it might be more of a genetic link than learned behavior.
“A few years ago, a young Quarter Horse in
the University teaching herd started cribbing as a weanling. It had been many years since our program had a horse that exhibited cribbing behavior. We know that weaning is a time of stress for young horses, even if they don’t appear visually stressed. They are stressed by separation from mom, and they are fed more grain. The thing that was interesting about this particular gelding is that his sire was a new stallion, a new bloodline for us, that we had not bred any mares to before, and the foal’s dam is not a cribber, so the foal had no one to mimic. We can’t completely rule out a genetic component. We think there are some horses that through their lineage are more prone to cribbing just because of the way they handle stress or changes in diet. They may react differently than the horse that does not become a cribber,” says Wickens.
There may be a genetic factor along with environmental stress. “That young gelding is currently progressing well with training and is otherwise healthy. In my experience, this is the youngest horse I’ve ever seen start cribbing. He was not managed any differently than the others; he was out at pasture with other weanlings
and had access to fresh forage and hay. We
are not sure why this particular horse began cribbing. It may be partly genetics and the way he responded to stress. As a foal, he had a short period of stall rest and confinement. No one noticed any abnormal behavior at that time, and it’s difficult to know whether or not this influenced his behavior,” she says.
If a young horse must have stall rest, trying to enrich that experience might help avoid problems. “You might try putting some toys in the stall for the young horse to play with,” she says. This might help encourage normal/natural oral behavior.
“Some of the things that might lead to cribbing in certain horses include a high concentrate diet, lack of turnout, and lack of socialization with other horses. Many owners
are already trying to do the right things and are often at a loss to know what else to do. Maybe they already have the horse out at pasture, allowed to be a horse. These horses may have hay in front of them most of the day and are socializing with pasture mates, but they still crib. Owners are wondering what else they can do,” says Wickens.
Those are the best strategies to keep pursuing, however, to minimize the amount of time the horse spends cribbing. You don’t want them loosening your fence boards, so you might electrify the top board to discourage this behavior. “Some horses become very resourceful, however, when you thwart their cribbing. We’ve witnessed horses cribbing on other horses in the pen or pasture if they can’t set their teeth on a tree or a fence or hay feeder,” she says.
A cribbing collar has strap fastened around the throatlatch and is adjusted to just enough tightness to cause discomfort when the horse cribs—making it difficult for the horse to tense the muscles that retract the larynx.
Some family lines of horses seem more prone to cribbing if they are in a stressful or unnatural environment.
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