Page 73 - November 2021

CRIBBING
CAN BE CHALLENGING
by Heather Smith Thomas
EQUINE HEALTH
Cribbing
is an annoying and worrisome
habit that some horses seem to be addicted to,
and many horse owners have been frustrated in trying to
halt a cribber. Horses kept in confinement and subjected to the stress of performance careers seem
to be the ones that most often resort to stereotypic, repetitive
behaviors such as cribbing, weaving, or stall walking. Cribbers place their incisor teeth on any handy horizontal
surface such as a fence, manger, stall divider, or water trough, arch their neck to open the throat more fully,
and draw air into the upper part of the esophagus with a grunting sound and a backward pull of the head.
Horses that have been cribbing for several years show abnormal wear on their upper incisors and develop thicker muscles under the neck. The enlarged neck muscles can interfere with proper neck flexion when the rider tries to collect the horse for athletic maneuvers. Some cribbers lose weight because they’d rather crib than eat. Many horses that crib keep cribbing even when turned out to pasture.
Most horsemen who own a cribber try various ways to halt this activity, covering stall surfaces with rounded
metal edges that are harder to grab, or use cribbing straps or collars on the horse. The strap is fastened around
the throatlatch and 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 straps are fitted with a piece of metal or stiff leather under the
throatlatch, so that when the horse arches his neck to crib, the
strap tightens and the point of the metal or stiff leather jabs into him and discourages
cribbing.
“For horse owners who want to stop this behavior, it requires physical prevention. This may entail use of a cribbing collar or something more invasive and expensive like surgery, but these tactics may not be completely successful and fail to address the underlying causes of the behavior.” - Carissa Wickens, PhD, PAS