Mine is also very sensitive though was in full work at the time and boarded. Part of the changes I made were adding supps for “hind gut acidosis”.
Also similar in that it’s the only time I ever experienced a horse starting to crib.
I know neither of mine’s parents cribbed but grandparents and beyond I have no clue about. His dam was a racehorse so there is that.
I do wonder if I had done something for the hindgut pH and biota if that would have helped. This was 15 years ago and that was a relatively new topic.
Same here in the fact that neither parent cribbed. She has no TB in her for her first 4 generations. She does have some warmblood lines where I’ve known other distantly related cribbers.
I’m sure you did your best and that’s what counts. If I should ever be in a similar situation again I would repeat the hind gut acidosis stuff for sure.
Mine is Friesian x QH. The QH is the racehorse side obviously lol. Mare had blue AQHA papers but if I recall correctly had fullTB top and bottom some generations back (common in QH racing families) Mare was by Frisco Flare out of a Go Dick Go / Little Priest mare.
I mean it is what it is. 
Mine is a Selle Francais cross, but she has some A-line Hanoverian. I have known at least 4 others with similar A-line breeding who crib. However, correlation does not equal causation so that may be a giant coincidence. That A-line is quite prevalent.
Water under the bridge now for sure.
It’s interesting to hear about another horse that started cribbing without ever seeing another cribber though. Both described as sensitive.
I concur about the breeding being another maybe but not definitive.
The farm I used to manage, we had three cribbers come into the barn. Not one single horse in the barn started cribbing by being in close contact with them, and at one point there were over 20 horses in the barn, some of them born there while the cribbers were in situ. Environment can play a big roll in cribbing starting. Also the one broodmare that was a weaver never had a foal that learned to weave from her.
One mare we had move in to the farm I managed was horribly thin, so I put her and her stablemate in one of our nicer paddocks, good grass, for turnout where I could keep an easy eye on her, instead of out in the big pasture. Turned out she was such a dedicated cribber, she would stand and suck on a fencepost for hours instead of grazing. Told her owner she needed a cribs strap. The mare stopped sucking on the fenceposts, and bloomed in a couple of months. Sometimes the straps just make sense.
I keep adding my musings to this conversation because I think about cribbing a lot…
A tale of two barns:
I used to work for the largest racing stable in the country. 300 thoroughbreds in training at any time. In all that time, I remember maybe 3 cribbers?
A couple years prior to that job, I had been working at a large H/J show barn. We had about 50 horses at any time. In my years there, we had at least a dozen cribbers, probably more. We easily had 5 or more at any given time. They came to us already cribbing. The horses there were mostly WBs, followed by TBs, and also some QHs and ponies.
I’ve worked at a number of other places, but those two stick out in my mind because of how striking the difference in cribbing frequency was. Both were “good” places in terms of care, though undoubtedly high stress for the horses.
My mare does not crib. But she did recently when she was having some bodywork done, and it was uncomfortable for her. She just reached out and grabbed the kickboard in her shed and chewed and sucked away. She hasn’t cribbed since then according to BO. She has been known to nibble on fencing very occasionally, but doesn’t make a habit of it.
I too had a horse start cribbing with no “examples” to follow. As a yearling he sliced his knee open so much you could stick your whole hand in the flap and had to spend 6 weeks in stall rest. He became a voracious cribber during that time and never stopped. No one else on the farm picked up the habit either. I couldn’t really do anything about it because it was more important that he come out of rehab sound than not cribbing. He still cribs and is 27 or 28 now (still in touch with his owner).
If I recall correctly one of Warwick Schiller’s horses is a cribber and developed the habit under similar circumstances to your horse. Severe injury/ surgery requiring extended stall rest.
My oldie cribbed when I brushed his mane the first time after obtaining him. He’d been with me maybe two days. It was a clear response to the mane brushing. Start n stop directly with the brush in his mane. I decided that since having his mane brushed clearly upset him, I wouldn’t brush his mane. Obviously mane brushing isn’t medically indicated like bodywork is. I figured I could roach the mane of it came to that.
He also cribbed once when I was accidentally too rough cleaning his scratches legs.
After getting to know each other more, the oldie now stands happily for me to brush his mane.
I’ll note that oldie will stall walk and truly weave if stressed.
I’m not sure if oldie has ever had a regular cribbing habit or not. I’ve only been able to talk with his connections for the last decade or so of his life; none reported a cribbing habit but he has had several rounds of stall rest he reportedly didn’t do well with. The first decade of his life is relatively unknown. The story is he was track trained but never raced. He has an old horizontal scar on his left knee that possibly could be related to his lack of starts.
He’s on stall rest currently but is allowed a bit of TO am n pm while I muck. Those few mins are evidently enough to keep him happy. His stall is more mare motel n design so he has a 360 view from inside and it’s OS at 15x25 so that might also be helping him cope. So far no cribbing or stall walking. He does weave for a min when I take the other horse out but once he realizes that we are staying close by he quits weaving.
@lenapesadie I was happy to just have the cribbing. It was a terrible injury requiring some very detailed care. He’s never had a problem on that knee to this day! The weird thing is he was in a stall that was very safe during a snowstorm, the vet thought he degloved it on his feed or water bucket somehow. I’d take the cribbing again on a similar injury. Joints are not something to mess with, and scar tissue was a big threat for a while because of proud flesh. At 27/28 he is still sound, so worth it!
Just so. I think WS’s horse had a reining career ending injury but did a surgery for best possible outcome. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with him but it’s his horse Bundy that he did most of his TV series with. Horse is very using sound just no sliding stops n spins etc.
Sometimes needs must! In my horse’s case he was stalled with access to a 12x50 run overnight and pasture TO during day but not enough hay.
ETA an acquaintance of mine’s horse ripped it’s muzzle in half on maybe a water bucket. Horses! An old breeder told me horses were born trying to kill themselves. He has a point
Cribbing is a learned behaviour?
There is no research to support this. Post what i cant find
There is nothing proving that it can not be learned. I believe some horses have a predisposition to be able to learn it. You can believe what you wish. I’m sure your access to google is the same as mine.
Predisposition - genetics
Cribbing, weaving, stall walking, those are stereotypies that horses do when a trigger sets them off.
Take a predisposed (which means genetics) horse, who is triggered by something (maybe an injury and subsequent stall rest) and there’s a great chance he’ll develop one of those even in the absence of another cribber/weaver/walker.
Put him in sight of a cribber, it’s probably mostly likely he’ll crib. Put him in sight of a weaver, he’ll probably start to weave.
If that’s how you want to prove this can be “learned”, then that’s fine. At that point it’s just WHICH behavior he’ll “learn”.
Seeing a horse crib doesn’t teach another to crib if the predisposition/genetics isn’t there. If it did, there would be ample evidence of barns full of cribbers who only started after one came into the place. Given the studies above showing how few horses started to crib in the presence of a cribber, there’s a whole lot of support against that being learned behavior.
There isn’t any support for just learning to crib out of the blue, due to the studies showing how few crib even in the presence of another, and I don’t think anyone thinks that so few horses are predisposed to learning in general.
reason of cribbing ?
my horse did it when i bought her 24/7
she was not happy, people were not honoust towards her, so they fought with her, in very mean ways… . also they didnt feed her pallets, and 4 kilo silage, to brake her, but she had big fighting caracter…because of to less to eat, she started cribbing… stressed and got not enough silage/hay.
after 2 year, when she was happy and got 14 kilo of silage a day, always was in pastern during the day, she still was a mare with caracter, but for me she gave 500% the good way…
but people who had intention to not ask but demand her things under saddle, were bucked of in 3 seconds, cause she was quick and mean… if you were honoust, you could ask under saddle with minimal aids, she gave you the best she could!!
most of the horses who are cribbing have stomach/intestent things who are not good…
most of the times 75% of the cribbing horses can be solved and is not genetic thing,
i never had trouble selling her foals, for a good price.
But it IS genetic, at least a component of it. The triggers are often avoidable or fixable though - more turnout, more forage, better training, different job, better stalling arrangements when stalling is necessary, those kinds of things
If you catch the trigger soon enough, and it’s something you can improve or remove, then there’s a good chance the cribbing will stop before it becomes habit. But not always
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
