DEVICES AND BARRIERS

Nowadays cribbing may increasingly be seen as a fairly benign activity, but sometimes it’s necessary to stop it. In extreme cases—when cribbing leads to repeated colics, for example, or prevents a horse from eating enough to maintain his weight—the behavior endangers health.

The only way to guarantee that a horse will not crib is to physically prevent him from doing it. “For horse owners who want to stop this behavior, it requires physical prevention,” says Carissa Wickens, PhD, PAS, of the University of Florida.

A popular method for stopping the behavior is the cribbing collar—straps that extend around the neck behind the poll with a piece of metal or stiff leather just under the throatlatch—which put pressure on a horse’s throat when he attempts to crib. Cribbing muzzles cover a horse’s nose and mouth, often with some sort of a metal grate; these allow the horse to eat and drink but prevent him from grasping hard surfaces with his teeth.

These devices can be effective while in place, but a horse will resume cribbing when they are removed. In fact, he may crib more aggressively for a time, a phenomenon called the rebound effect.

“These tactics may not be completely successful because they fail to address the underlying causes of the behavior,” Wickens says. Although the causes of cribbing are not fully understood, the activity seems to fulfill some psychological need in the horse, and physically preventing the behavior may increase the horse’s stress.

Other tactics for discouraging cribbing include sprays and other concoctions formulated to smell or taste bad enough to stop a horse from putting his mouth on a surface, or the installation of rounded wood or metal pole fencing, which is harder for a horse to grip with his teeth. Running an electrified wire along the top of existing fences will also discourage a cribber.

Devices and barriers are often imperfect solutions, however. “With some horses, if you put a collar on they will stop cribbing momentarily because they can’t expand the larynx and stretch their neck to try to perform the behavior, but they almost always redirect the behavior into some other form of stereotypic activity. They may start to head toss, weave or walk the stall,” says Wickens. “Even when you implement these kinds of physical prevention strategies, we still recommend management changes. It is extremely important to address the underlying reasons that the horse is cribbing in the first place.” other horses can be very helpful.”

Providing turnout, a companion and ample forage are the best things you can do, says Wickens: “This helps reduce cribbing behavior but doesn’t always stop it.”

• Provide toys for oral stimulation. Toys may help keep a horse’s mouth busy and distract him from cribbing. Those that encourage oral activity, such as licking or chewing, may be especially helpful. “If you watch cribbers, right before they actually set their teeth on the fence board or side of the stall, many of them exhibit a lot of oral behavior. They tend to lick and chew just before they actually set their teeth,” says Wickens.

A 2011 study from Cornell University showed providing toys that stimulate these licking and chewing behaviors slightly reduced the rate of cribbing. “These devices are hung in the stall and have some kind of apparatus on them that encourages the horse to manipulate them with tongue and lips,” says Wickens. “The study showed that this specific type of toy that stimulates chewing, licking and oral behavior is somewhat helpful for the cribber.”

Some horses may be more motivated to play with toys that dispense treats. “There are some gigantic plastic treat balls they can kick around,” says Munsterman. “These look like giant spools and you can put horse treats inside. The horse rolls it around with his nose and every now and then it drops out a treat if he rolls it the right way.” A forage-based treat, rather than one composed of highly palatable grain, may be best for cribbers. Toys may be a good idea to encourage natural oral behavior and prevent

the development of cribbing in young horses who must be kept on stall rest. “You might try putting some toys in the stall for the young horse to play with and manipulate,” Wickens says.

Toys may also provide more enrichment for horses wearing collars to prevent cribbing. “Even if you have to put a cribbing collar on for part of the day, you may want to also improve the horse’s welfare and overall mental state through different types of enrichment, particularly if he is spending any amount of time in a stall,” says Munsterman. “Even if you are physically preventing the cribbing it might be good to give the horse something else to do orally---like playing with a sturdy ball or one of the lick-it type toys.”

THE CASE FOR ACCEPTANCE

Sometimes even the most conscientious management regimen can’t keep a horse from cribbing. “Many owners are already trying to do the right things. They already have the horses out at pasture. The horses have forage in front of them most of the day and are socializing with pasturemates, but they still crib,” says Wickens. “The owners are wondering what else they can do.”

The answer may be to find a way for the horse to crib more safely---in fact, many behaviorists are starting to believe that stopping the behavior may have negative consequences for the

horse. The stresses of not being able to crib may affect his health.

“As concerning as the behavior can be to owners---with the noise, the destruction of facilities, etc.---if it does serve some function and has some purpose for the horse, we may need to be careful about the way we approach it in terms of managing these horses,” says Wickens. “We’re thinking that if you allow horses to crib, at least for a period of time during the day, maybe you are helping them reduce their stress levels. Horse owners who are trying to manage these behaviors might want to consider this before they try to physically prevent the horse from doing the cribbing behavior.”

One option might be to provide the horse with a board with a rubber surface he can grip with less damage to his teeth. It may take some training, but the horse can be encouraged to use the board rather than the fences or other structures. “There is no way to really stop the cribbing but a person might redirect it---to be better for the horse and the facilities,” Munsterman says.

A hybrid approach---allowing the horse to crib for part of the day while also using a collar or muzzle at times--may be helpful if the cribbing is causing colic or otherwise endangering the horse’s health, for example, “if the cribber is a really hard keeper and spends too much time during meals cribbing instead of eating,” Wickens says. “If the horse is not consuming enough calories to maintain body condition, he might need to wear a collar during mealtime so he can focus on eating instead of cribbing. Also, if the horse can’t crib during meals, he might digest the food better, so there is less risk for colic and digestive problems.”

One potential positive of owning a horse who cribs is that it can prompt you to pay closer attention to his lifestyle, identifying how boredom, lack of activity, social isolation and other factors may not only contribute to the behavior but have negative effects on his overall health. And management remedies for horses who crib are generally fairly simple and familiar: “Try to let them be horses---more turnout time and more social contact may help relieve some of the environmental stress,” says Wickens. “Keeping forage in front of them for more of the day should be part of the management change.” But if these or other measures fail to eliminate cribbing, horse-keepers today benefit from the knowledge that if they can’t eliminate the behavior, all is not lost. Sometimes cribbing is OK.

A hybrid approach– allowing the horse to crib for part of the day while also using a collar or muzzle at times–may be helpful if the cribbing is causing colic or otherwise endangering the horse’s health.