Where would you draw the line on issues for a broodmare prospect?

[Jealoushe]

I have a weaver…I did a LOT of reading of stereotypical behaviour.

General understanding is it gets ingrained in the first 2 years, mostly triggered by horsekeeping issues (and some are more genetically predisposed than others)…so the upbringing of the foal/yearling/youngster is super important.

and FYI to anyone reading, “Turnout” is not always the answer. My weaver mares weaves to come in at night at the gate lol

[Texarkana]

@JB

@sigrid.sijtsma

75% of the cribbing horses can be solved and is not genetic thing,

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

Adding to evidence for a genetic component:

There are A LOT of terrible horse people out there, unfortunately. However, cribbers remain a small portion of the population.

If cribbing was strictly related to management, animal control would roll up to these neglect cases and darn near every horse would be cribbing. You’d walk into a barn of an abusive trainer and see the aisle full of cribbing horses. But that’s not how it works. Even in high stress situations, the frequency of cribbing is never higher than about 15%, with some breeds being more predisposed and others rarely developing the behavior.