Ep. 085: What is Horse Cribbing and How Can I Prevent It?

Episode Notes

On this episode, co-hosts Dr. Tania Cubitt and Katy Starr discuss horse cribbing, including:

• How is cribbing different from other horse stereotypies, like weaving or stall walking?
• Is horse cribbing genetic or a learned behavior?
• What management practices can be implemented to help reduce the likelihood of a horse developing a cribbing habit?

Horse cribbing can be a difficult behavior to manage. Tune in to this new episode to help minimize the chance of your horse developing this nearly unbreakable habit.

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*Views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Standlee Premium Products, LLC.*

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Reference – 

~13:50 – Cribbing collar example and visual from Ohio State University Extension - https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-89

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Read full episode transcript

Katy Starr (00:01):

Hi, I'm Katy.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (00:02):

And I'm Dr. Cubitt. We're going Beyond the Barn. Come join us on this journey as we bust equine and livestock nutrition myths, and interview some of the most intriguing experts in the country.

 

Katy Starr (00:15):

We'll go behind the scenes of how premium Western quality forage is grown and brought to your favorite farm and ranch retail store. We're so glad you're here. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Barn. Dr. Cubitt, it has been a while, but we are back with new episodes and I'm so glad to have you here with us today.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (00:38):

I'm excited to be back to talk to our listeners. This has been a while, but we are back!

 

Katy Starr (00:44):

Yeah, and today we're going to be talking about horse cribbing, which should be a little bit of an interesting topic to get into. Hopefully we can address some questions that maybe some of our listeners have on this topic that they've been thinking about or if they've had any struggles with themselves. Just a reminder, any of the topics we cover on the Beyond the Barn podcast are more generalized and not specific to any individual horse or any specific situation. Be sure to always work with your veterinarian and nutritionist before making any drastic changes to your horse's feed program, or you can reach out to us to talk directly with Dr. Cubitt or Dr. Duren on any specifics that you would like to know. Just trying to get us started a little bit, what is horse cribbing and how would you say it's different from, maybe, some other equine stereotypies or vices, like weaving or stall walking?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (01:37):

Cribbing is the act where the horse actually will attach its teeth, its mouth to a hard object, and then inhale or suck in air. It's a very distinct visual when you look at a horse that's cribbing. It's not just chewing the wood; it's biting the hard object and then almost arching its neck to suck in air.

 

Katy Starr (02:00):

Right, and is there something about it that may be different from some of the other things that horses might tend to do, like weaving or anything like that, would you say?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (02:10):

I think that, potentially we will get to throughout the episode, there is not a specific known cause other than we know stress can be a precursor to all of these stereotypic behaviors starting. But the one thing with cribbing that I don't believe horses, and I am by no means an expert, but I don't believe that from other stereotypies like weaving. I know that horses, when they crib, when they suck that air, it actually releases endorphins. And so, that itself is a natural high that might be combating that frustration or stress response. And I don't believe that other stereotypies like chewing or weaving elicit that same endorphin release.

 

Katy Starr (02:59):

Interesting. Would you say that there might be any specific breeds or age or even just types of horses that might be more prone to cribbing than others?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (03:11):

I wouldn't say that it's age or breed or type of horse. I would say it's the management of the horse. I think that, and again, this is a lot of anecdotal advice because if you look at any research that's been done on cribbing in horses, nobody really can determine a specific cause. I would say that the management of horses, high performance horses, horses that are under higher amounts of stress now that may not be high performance horses, but we know that high performance horses are because they're getting trailered, they're stalled, they're constantly having their environment changed. But even if it's a management situation, where horses are bored all day because they're not getting enough forage to eat, for example, or in a small dry lot with nothing to do, not getting enough forage, not mimicking that grazing behavior. So, any management that encourages boredom or stress, those horses will have a higher incidence of developing cribbing.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (04:18):

That being said, not every single one of those horses will develop cribbing, unlike something like gastric ulcers where pretty much every horse that's stressed will get gastric ulcers. Every horse is not going to start cribbing. Now, it has been suggested but certainly not researched and validated but suggested that there might be a genetic predisposition. So, if you have a mare that cribbed, it's probably more likely that her children, her offspring, you know foals, will also start cribbing.

 

Katy Starr (04:52):

Right.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (04:52):

Now, one thing could be, oh, it's a learned behavior - they're learning it from their dam, seeing her do it. But let's say they never did it up until and you weaned them and then they went away and went into a riding program or exercise program and then under stress they started cribbing. That would to me say that that is a straight up genetic correlation because they didn't learn that from their mother. They developed that later on in life. So, there's certainly been a suggestion that there could be a genetic link.

 

Katy Starr (05:26):

Right, that's interesting. We've had horses on our place for quite a few years and it's interesting, sometimes we have some new ones come in and go and we had this paint horse a few years ago that had a cribbing habit and none of our horses previously ever did a cribbing behavior and they taught, I think that horse taught the other ones because they just started, kind of, annihilating...

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (05:52):

Absolutely.

 

Katy Starr (05:52):

...some of our trees around, which was frustrating because it is like really don't want to get this started. But one thing that I noticed this last winter, that paint horse isn't here anymore, but some of the horses were doing that and we're thinking about, gosh, I was like, maybe it's a nutrient deficiency of some sort. Just not quite understanding or knowing. But we've been thinking about it as we're getting back into the winter season where they're off pasture again and eating hay consistently. They haven't done any of that behavior all summer long. You know, you start, kind of, like going through these things, these habits or little things that you notice or what's happening. Because I feel like if it were something that they had developed as like a very specific habit, they would still be doing it even through the summer. And so, I just found that to be really interesting, trying to, kind of, navigate that and figure out, well what, kind of, changes can we make from a management perspective to, kind of, prevent that from going on again this winter?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (06:51):

Absolutely. Yeah, these are stereotypic behaviors that I've just mentioned that they're developed from stress or management, but they are also learned behaviors. So, you might have some completely fine horses that have no stress, you know, no boredom, but another horse that maybe came to your property, like the paint horse that had that behavior, then they all learn it from them. It's like, if I yawn, if I do it right now, I guarantee you'll yawn.

 

Katy Starr (07:20):

I know! It'll make me yawn .

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (07:20):

And it's a mental thing! I don't know, you know, you just, kind of, learn that behavior. Now I want to yawn. It's really a pain; this cribbing is a pain.

 

Katy Starr (07:29):

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, and I guess that, kind of, goes to my next question where I was going to ask you about causes of cribbing, but since we don't actually know what they are, I mean you, kind of, went into a little bit of environmental things that could be a cause or genetic disposition.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (07:44):

Yeah, and I think also we could go, okay the management, but a lot of times it's also a pain response as well. So, if you're not bored and we know that maybe they're not super stressed, let's look at something like gastric ulcers or chronic pain in a muscular or skeletal issue because we know that it does release endorphins to make them feel better. So, a lot of times we think of gastric ulcers and chewing because that also can secrete saliva, that will help buffer. But you know, as a root cause it could be something like gastric ulcers as well. So, you know, pain, boredom, frustration, management. You know, there's a whole slew of different things and probably very different for every horse. But I'll just read this one sentence out of a paper I was reading; "The reasons behind why horses crib remains frustratingly elusive", which is very true.

 

Katy Starr (08:45):

Yeah. Well so, you mentioned gastric ulcers. So, I'm guessing then, not that it's always easy to spot some of the early signs, but if you notice a horse that has started doing that, that would be something to, kind of, work with your veterinarian on, kind of, get in touch with them about? Because potentially they could have an issue with gastric ulcers?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (09:06):

Yea, if you've listened to any of our other podcasts, you know that I am a huge advocate of knowing your horse and knowing all of your horse's normal (routine) blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, how much water they drink, you know, what is your horse's normal behavior? So that when it is slightly different, you can be very proactive about working out, oh what's happened? You know, they're not eating as much hay, they're not drinking as much water. Their stall seems to be, you know, more disheveled in the morning than it normally is. And so, we can get to the bottom of whatever might be causing that stress or trauma or anxiety before it becomes either a physical problem or a mental issue. So, really just knowing your horse.

 

Katy Starr (09:59):

Right. Would you say, you, kind of, touched on this a little bit when we were talking about nutrients and things like that, but would you say that there might be a link between diet or feeding practices and the likelihood of a horse developing cribbing behavior?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (10:16):

I would say no to diet, with respect to them lacking a nutrient. A lot of times people will say, well are they lacking something? Are they not getting enough copper or salt or zinc? No, I think when a horse chews wood, one of the primary reasons is they're lacking fiber and the bugs in the microbiome are just craving that non-digestible fiber. Cribbing, no, they're not lacking anything per se. Now yes, they might be lacking forage and that in turn makes them bored and in turn could develop gastric ulcers, which might be the reason why they started doing the cribbing in the beginning. So no, I don't think in the diet they are lacking a nutrient per se. Diet management though, absolutely. I mean we've talked before, when we talked about stress in horses, that simply feeding your horses 30 minutes later than you normally do.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (11:13):

So, a study looked at feeding horses at 7:00 AM, that was the time that they fed the horses every single day. If they fed them at 6:00 AM, no stress response. And a stress response was measured by an increase in cortisol, which is gold standard. But if they fed them at 7:30 AM, the horses had elevated cortisol, which meant they had an elevated stress response. So, something like an erratic schedule not sticking to a schedule, because we know that horses are so schedule oriented; they need a routine, and they need to stick to it. That could cause a little anxiety that may, in some horses, potentially end up leading to cribbing.

 

Katy Starr (11:52):

Okay. Aside from the time of day that you feed a horse, based off of that study you just talked about, were there any other potential feeding strategies that you think would be beneficial for a horse that is cribbing that maybe would be helpful for them?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (12:08):

I mean, I think all of the things that we talk about that are good for gastric health, dietary health. The horse is a grazing animal, so trying to maintain forage in front of them all the time, not letting them have nothing to eat for more than four to six hours, those kinds of things, decreased stress, decreased boredom, that certainly would be ideal. I don't think that there is always a need to feed high grain diets to horses. If we can potentially look at feeding a better-quality forage, and I say better nutritional value forage so that we can cut back on some of the cereal grain concentrate that we're feeding them, can certainly help with gastrointestinal health, decrease maybe a pain response from gastric ulcers or something like that. But they would be my, across the board very generic feeding recommendations for a whole slew of different disorders. But certainly, would help with cribbing as well. I would backtrack and say, not help with cribbing. Once horses develop this behavior, it's very, very difficult for them to unlearn it or stop doing it without, kind of, that cribbing collar that stops them sucking the air like that. But it may decrease the likelihood that your horse would develop this behavior in the first place.

 

Katy Starr (13:24):

Right, and speaking of, you mentioned the cribbing collar. I know that there have been some, kind of, things suggested in terms of, kind of, helping a horse that has a cribbing habit to keep them from doing it and that being one of them. Speak to that a little bit about, is that something that's recommended or what does that do for the horse to, kind of, prevent them from actually doing that behavior?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (13:50):

So, we can put up a picture with the notes for the show, but if people aren't familiar with what a cribbing color or a cribbing strap is, it's usually a leather or webbed, kind of, strap that goes over the poll or behind the poll really. And then it has this metal, it's, kind of, shaped to fit into the grooves of their neck and what it does, it doesn't interfere with anything other than when they go, they arch their neck and try to suck air. It prevents them from doing that. Also, if they're wearing a grazing muzzle, it stops them from doing that. You can also, if you didn't want to put a cribbing collar or a strap on the horse, you could also just remove the surfaces in their environment that they would crib on. So, if you've got a fence line or in the stall, like using electric tape or electric fence to stop them being able to like grasp onto those surfaces or even using, kind of, bitter or unpleasant tasting substances that you paste onto those surfaces so that they don't want to grasp onto it with their teeth.

 

Katy Starr (15:02):

So, we talk a little bit about stress, how this could be a reason possibly for why horses do this. Would you say, I mean how does turnout time and access to social interaction for horses influence cribbing? Because I also think about how potentially like looking at, especially if you stalled horse, how your stall design looks, any kind of enrichment things. Do you think that that could help reduce some of the cribbing behavior by keeping some of those things in mind?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (15:34):

Once a horse has started this behavior, like I've said, it's near impossible to stop them doing it. So, all the turnout in the world, all the decreasing stress, all the changing the diet, giving them forage all the time, they still do it. So, our real goal is stopping them from developing the behavior in the first place. And that's why I think so many people are so hesitant to ever purchase a horse that has a cribbing history. Because you will convert healthy unstressed horses to being cribbing horses just by watching the behavior and then it just, kind of, trickles through everything else then.

 

Katy Starr (16:12):

So, then maybe looking at some of those environmental factors initially. I mean, we always talk about like it's always better to, kind of, set yourself up well, and this comes to like all the nutrition things that we talk about as well, right?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (16:26):

Mm-hmm .

 

Katy Starr (16:27):

Like rather than having an issue come up because we didn't do something, maybe in a way that that would've been better for that horse, they have some, kind of, nutritional disorder developed because of that. It's going to end up costing you more money in the long run. It's going to cause you more stress and heartache.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (16:41):

Yes.

 

Katy Starr (16:42):

So, just getting started on the right foot, basically, with your management feeding, all of those kinds of things help to set your horse up for success and then hopefully avoid that in the first place.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (16:54):

And all of the things that we've talked about are not just simply to avoid your horse cribbing, right? These are things that we want to do with horses all the time.

 

Katy Starr (17:03):

In general.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (17:04):

It just gives them a better quality of life.

 

Katy Starr (17:06):

Right.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (17:06):

Increases digestive health, increases performance. So, it's not like, oh gosh, I've just given you a whole slew of other things now that you need to do with a horse so that they don't develop cribbing. These are just normal management strategies that we would talk about, whether we were talking about gastric ulcers, performance horses, brood mares. We would talk about these things anyway, as just good equine management.

 

Katy Starr (17:29):

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm glad you mentioned that. Would you say, you've mentioned obviously that once they start cribbing it's incredibly hard to break that habit. Is there anything that you are aware of or has been shown feed-wise, supplement-wise, forage-wise to help with cribbing?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (17:47):

I'm reading that there are some surgical or pharmacological options as well. I would say talk to your veterinarian about those. But I wouldn't get into those, but it certainly says there is some success with those alternate options. But as far as normal things that most of us have access to, all of the turnout, the forage, all of those things increase mental health and quality of life. And so, do them. I cannot guarantee that they will decrease your horse's cribbing or even stop cribbing, but you still want to do them.

 

Katy Starr (18:24):

Right, right. And we talked a little bit about how, you mentioned before that sometimes horse owners end up missing some of the initial signs or early signs of cribbing. Are there any things that horse owners can kind of look for, be aware of, pay attention to? I mean, you talked about like what is your horse's normal? So, you know what becomes abnormal. But are there any, kind of, little tendencies that maybe we should just, kind of, have in the back of our mind about, oh, you know, maybe this is something that we should get looked at, call our vet in and see if there's something that's going on. Because like you said, once it becomes a habit, it's incredibly hard to break.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (19:05):

I don't think that there are any specific signs that are, especially for cribbing, like, oh, all of a sudden now they're standing out in the open and starting to take deep breaths or something like that. There's nothing that's specific to cribbing. But any change in behavior that is negative that you think, ah, that's really not like them, they seem a little depressed, not eating as much forage - if you're providing plenty of forage. You know, those kinds of things would be indicators for me to work out why. Why is this occurring? This horse may never develop cribbing, but maybe they're on the path to developing gastric ulcers or maybe they've got an infection brewing. So, again, it's not specific to cribbing, but knowing when your horse changes their normal, can help you very quickly get to the root of a lot of different problems.

 

Katy Starr (20:02):

Right, right. Okay, Dr. Cubitt, so as we start to wrap this episode up, what would be some of your key takeaways that you would like to leave our listeners with on this topic of horses cribbing?

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (20:16):

Cribbing is a classic example of, "prevention is better than cure", because really there is no cure, but there can be prevention. I think, hopefully, when you're buying horses, sellers might, if they know the horse's history would be honest with you that whether the horse cribs or whether there's cribbing, even in the pedigree of the horse. Did any horse in the lineage crib, that you know of? Your horse might have a higher risk of cribbing. But just all the normal management for horses as well, that we advocate as much turnout, as much forage, decreasing stress as you possibly can.

 

Katy Starr (20:54):

Great, thank you. And to our listeners, again, we're so excited to be back and we would love to hear from you. So, if you have any topic ideas that you have been thinking about and you would love for us to cover, please reach out to us at podcast@standlee.com. We'd love to hear from you, and until next time! Thanks for being here, Dr. Cubitt.

 

Dr. Tania Cubitt (21:15):

Thank you.

 

Katy Starr (21:18):

Thanks for listening to the Beyond the Barn podcast by Standlee Forage. We'd love for you to share our podcast with your favorite people and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. Until next time, keep your cinch tight and don't forget to turn off the water.