Ridiculously simple, quick fix to prevent horse cribbing on certain objects.

[danacat]

If you have a horse that cribs on something you don’t want them to crib on – like water bucket rim, feed tub edge, stall guard, etc. then read on…

I’ll use a water bucket as an example.

Buy a roll of 2" Gorilla Tape.

Then make a mark around top of bucket – inside and out-- two inches below rim.

Tear off an 8" strip of tape. Attach strip vertically to outside of bucket at your 2 inch mark – fold tape over and affix other end at 2" mark on inside of bucket. You will then have a 2" portion of doubled over tape that is sticking UP above rim. Squish the exposed sticky sides together so as to make a floppy, double thick TAB of sorts.

Repeat this around sides/front of bucket – space your tape ‘tabs’ an inch apart. What you are making is basically a set of tape ‘teeth’ around your bucket rim. Obviously you don’t have to do this the entire way around bucket. Just in an arc around the front.

When you squish sticky parts of tape together to form the tabs, best to make them angle slightly forward and also kind of wrinkled and imperfect – jagged/bent edges. You’ll know what I mean when you are doing this. It’s easy.

Horse will not want to crib on this tape teeth contraption. Edges of tabs are soft but firm and ‘annoy’ your horse’s sensitve top lip and nose just enough that they won’t even try to crib. Turns them right off.

Plus, the soft, floppy tabs trick your horse into thinking that this is not a firm enough surface to crib on, even if they have been cribbing on the thing years. Believe me it works!

Yes your bucket will look awful – but it can still be cleaned and scrubbed etc. without tape coming off. Gorilla Tape is pretty indestructible. And by the time you do have to replace some of the tabs, your horse will hopefully have been trained to NOT crib on bucket. Just the mere sight of the tape tabs is enough to deter them – yet they will (should) still drink from bucket with no problem at all.

Please remember that your horse will find something else to crib on – so be prepared. IMO, die hard cribbers should be provided with ‘something’ to crib on that you DON’T care about. If not, they might brave the tape teeth and you’ll be back to square one.

I have not posted this ‘idea’ so as to invite an argument or heated discussion about cribbing, or causes of cribbing, ulcers, treatments, negative personal views on horses that crib, etc. etc.

This is simply a solution meant to help save tape-able $$$ things that horses tend to ruin when they crib.

[goodhors]

Well that is certainly “out of the box thinking!” I will pass the tip on to cribber owners I know. If it even only works for one person, it is helpful in making life easier. Thanks.

[trubandloki]

What a creative idea.
Toss this thought out there - if you do this to a water bucket best to closely monitor the water intake of the horse for a few days to make sure they are not turned off from drinking by the creative tape bits.

[MontysGal]

I’m going to try this on a wood chewer too… hmmm… thanks for passing it along, seems easy! Definitely worth a try!

[danacat]

Here’s another ‘out of the box’ idea for stopping horses from chewing and/or cribbing on the top of wood fence posts. This REALLY works!

Again, buy Gorilla tape – and also go to your local tire repair place and get some old/used truck tire tubes. They should give them to you for free.

Cut tire tube rubber into square pieces – 12" x 12" or larger (depends on size of post) – drape rubber piece over top of post. Criss cross two long pieces of Gorilla tape over top of rubber piece (top of post) and continue down sides, well past rubber so that tape is on (and sticking to) wood at least 4 inches. Believe me, it will stick to wood.

Then encircle/wrap Gorilla tape around post covering tape strips you just put on – and you want to catch some of the tire tube as well during wrapping.

It looks ugly as hell to have dozens of posts ‘capped’ with tire tube pieces and black tape – but for some reason horses hate the feel/taste of rubber tire and they will never chomp on those posts again.

One of my OTTB geldings started being a post top eater – even though he has logs to chew on, is out 24/7 always has hay, gets plenty of exercise etc. etc. He just loves posts – and I invisioned having to eventually replace all the posts in my sacrifice paddock. Ugh!

Thus I had to get creative and find a cheap, immediate fix. At the time I had no idea the rubber/tape idea would work – but it did. He hasn’t touched any of them since I capped them. They have been on for over six months.

My cribber (only cribs when he’s in his stall) was destroying his feed tub – cross bar – water buckets – you name it! Now – due to my genius TAPE TABS – he just cribs on the block of wood I bolted to his stall wall.

There is a company that sells rubber tire type rubber in rolls (not too expensive) in any width or length. It could be layed on top of wood fence rails – and of course secured with the Gorilla tape wrapped around in a few places. But I can’t remember the name of the company! Will investigate and post name when I discover it.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

I would worry that the horse would ingest the duct tape. And colic.
No thanks I’ll use the old conventional methods if I ever get another cribber. Haven’t had one in 30 years, so fingers crossed.

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=danacat;8998003]
Here’s another ‘out of the box’ idea for stopping horses from chewing and/or cribbing on the top of wood fence posts. This REALLY works!

Again, buy Gorilla tape – and also go to your local tire repair place and get some old/used truck tire tubes. They should give them to you for free.

Cut tire tube rubber into square pieces – 12" x 12" or larger (depends on size of post) – drape rubber piece over top of post. Criss cross two long pieces of Gorilla tape over top of rubber piece (top of post) and continue down sides, well past rubber so that tape is on (and sticking to) wood at least 4 inches. Believe me, it will stick to wood.

Then encircle/wrap Gorilla tape around post covering tape strips you just put on – and you want to catch some of the tire tube as well during wrapping.

It looks ugly as hell to have dozens of posts ‘capped’ with tire tube pieces and black tape – but for some reason horses hate the feel/taste of rubber tire and they will never chomp on those posts again.

One of my OTTB geldings started being a post top eater – even though he has logs to chew on, is out 24/7 always has hay, gets plenty of exercise etc. etc. He just loves posts – and I invisioned having to eventually replace all the posts in my sacrifice paddock. Ugh!

Thus I had to get creative and find a cheap, immediate fix. At the time I had no idea the rubber/tape idea would work – but it did. He hasn’t touched any of them since I capped them. They have been on for over six months.

My cribber (only cribs when he’s in his stall) was destroying his feed tub – cross bar – water buckets – you name it! Now – due to my genius TAPE TABS – he just cribs on the block of wood I bolted to his stall wall.

There is a company that sells rubber tire type rubber in rolls (not too expensive) in any width or length. It could be layed on top of wood fence rails – and of course secured with the Gorilla tape wrapped around in a few places. But I can’t remember the name of the company! Will investigate and post name when I discover it.[/QUOTE]

Some around here just put a piece of aluminum over the wood posts
to keep the rain from soaking in ( i guess). It covers the whole top of the post and is anchored by 4 flaps and screwed into the post. Only need to do it once and all smooth edges too.