🧠 Vet Insight 2025: How to Manage Abnormal Behavior in Horses Like Cribbing and Wood Chewing 🐎🌾

Have you noticed your horse chewing on fence rails or grabbing the edge of a stall and pulling back while gulping air? These behaviors—commonly known as wood chewing and cribbing (or wind sucking)—may seem harmless or annoying, but they can be signs of deeper issues with your horse’s mental and digestive health. In this 2025 behavior guide, Dr Duncan Houston explains the causes, health risks, and the most effective management strategies to help reduce these behaviors. 🧠🐴

🔍 What Is Wood Chewing?

Wood chewing involves gnawing on wood surfaces like fences, stall doors, or trees. While sometimes dismissed as a “bad habit,” it’s often related to:

• 🌾 Low-fiber diets
• 🧠 Boredom or lack of turnout
• 🧬 Dietary imbalances

In spring, horses at pasture may also chew wood more due to high sugar and low fiber content in fast-growing grass. 🌱

🐴 What Is Cribbing (Wind Sucking)?

Cribbing is a stereotypic behavior where a horse grabs a solid object with its front teeth, arches its neck, and pulls back while sucking in air. This is sometimes accompanied by a grunting noise and is not the same as true wind sucking, although the terms are often used interchangeably. 🔊

Key differences:

• 🪵 Cribbing requires an object (fence, bucket, wood edge)
• 💨 Wind sucking does not involve grabbing an object

Both are signs of environmental or physiological stress, not "bad behavior." 📉

📉 Causes of Abnormal Behavior in Horses

1. 🥗 Low-Fiber, High-Fat Diets

• Cribbing and wood chewing are more common in horses on high-concentrate diets (grain-based)
• Horses fed complete pelleted rations may not chew enough, reducing saliva production

Chewing hay promotes saliva production, which helps buffer stomach acid. This may reduce cribbing by improving digestive comfort. 🧪

2. 🧠 Lack of Foraging Time

• Horses evolved to graze for 16+ hours/day
• Stall confinement limits natural behaviors

When horses are deprived of social interaction and grazing, they may develop repetitive behaviors like cribbing to cope. 🚫

3. 🧬 Genetic and Learned Factors

Some horses may be more genetically prone to stereotypies. Horses that see others cribbing may also mimic the behavior. 🧬

🧪 Health Risks of Cribbing

• 🦷 Excessive tooth wear and jaw stress
• 💨 Air ingestion can lead to mild gas colic
• 💢 Increased risk of gastric ulcers
• 🧠 Reinforced neurological pathways (habit forming)

Horses that crib are shown to have a higher incidence of colic—likely due to a combination of stress, poor gut motility, and air ingestion. 🩺

✅ Effective Management Strategies

1. 🌿 Increase Fiber Intake

• Feed free-choice hay whenever possible
• Use slow-feed hay nets to mimic natural foraging

2. 🧠 Promote Natural Behavior

• Increase turnout time with access to pasture
• Allow social interaction with other horses
• Provide mental stimulation (toys, varied terrain)

3. 🧾 Adjust Diet

• Minimize or eliminate high-fat, high-sugar grain feeds
• Use forage-based or low-starch feed when supplementation is needed

4. 🚫 Remove Triggers

• Apply cribbing collars (as a last resort, not a cure)
• Use non-toxic wood deterrents or wraps for fences

5. 🩺 Treat Underlying Health Conditions

• Check for gastric ulcers via endoscopy
• Evaluate for nutrient deficiencies (B vitamins, magnesium)

📲 Ask A Vet: Behavior and Nutrition Support

If you’re unsure whether your horse’s cribbing is behavioral, medical, or nutritional, the Ask A Vet app provides personalized advice from professionals like Dr Duncan Houston. 📱🐴

• 📸 Share stall videos to capture abnormal behaviors
• 🧾 Upload diet history for review
• 💬 Get step-by-step behavioral plans

Download the Ask A Vet app today and help your horse find calm, comfort, and better daily habits. 🧠

🏁 Final Thoughts: Meet the Need, Stop the Habit

Cribbing and wood chewing aren’t “bad behaviors”—they’re symptoms of unmet physical or psychological needs. Horses thrive on routine, forage, movement, and social contact. By meeting those needs, you reduce the chances of developing stereotypies—and improve your horse’s overall wellbeing. ✅

Whether your horse lives in a stall, dry lot, or pasture, you can reduce stress-driven behavior by:

• 🌾 Feeding more hay
• 🔄 Increasing turnout and social time
• 🧠 Creating a mentally stimulating routine

🐾 For tailored help, visit AskAVet.com or download the Ask A Vet app to connect with Dr Duncan Houston. Your horse’s behavior speaks volumes—make sure you’re listening. 🐎💙