[tbtrainer]

Ha Jamie, I'm trying to live in 2008 also!

But anyway, there is always this...

http://www.tthorse.com/

[ejforrest]

"Cribbing, also called wind sucking, is thought to be hereditary and related to boredom, but new information associates it with stomach pain from excess acidity and ulcers."

Check for ulcers if this has just started.You need to have an endoscope done which runs 150-200 depending on the vet. There is something going on if he just started. It is best to rule out ulcers because if left untreatd the ulcer will perforate and the horse will die of peritonitis.

Feed more hay or alfalfa hay. Hay helps buffer the excess acid. Feeding alfalfa hay helps to buffer stomach acid up to five hours after feeding.

[Native Winds]

Originally Posted by kulasmom

I will let you know how Quitt works.

SeaHa- I'm going to try working him, too. I am just going to wait for our temperatures to get out of the single digits!!

Windsucking is not the same as cribbing. Wind sucking is when a filly asperates air in threw her vulva thus risking bacterial infections in her uterus. This happens mostly on race tracks and the filly/mare has a conformational issue in the outside of the genetalia and while racing will asperate air. This is usualy cured by having a caslix put in.

Cribbing is when a horse fixes his upper incissors, flexes his neck from the poll and puls back andmakes a burping sound. In recent studies have shown that most of the air is pushed from the esauphogus (sp?) when he/she relaxes the neck. It can lead to colic, wearing exccesivly on the upper incissors, weight loss (esp if they are a serious die hard cribbers) poor performance, and asperating food particles. THere is an surgery that can stop this habit but it can be risky and its expensive. They go in and cut a muscle that keeps the animal from being able to flex the throat area just under the jaw. You best bet is either getting a cribbing collar (the Miracle collar is a good one), feed through muzzle or a cribbing strap, and the applications usualy dont do a very good job because they more than likely will go crib somewhere else if available.

Wood Chewing is not cribbing or windsucking. It is just that, chewing and some times eating of wood products be it the fence line, the stalls, wooden hitching post, trees, and etc. Often called "Beavers" The habit of wood chewing can create colic, choke, wear and tear of teeth esp the incisors, and possible poisoning if the horse chews on a poisoning plant or tree. Not to menton destruction that could cost a chunk of change to repair. There is a product out by Farnam called QUITT and its garuanteed to work or your money back. I have seen the results and it indeed worked. I was working on a small farm as weekend manager and the owner bought Quitt after I recommended it to her and her TB broodmare and her warmblood mowed down fence line, trees and tried the stall and once the quitt was being feed for about 7 days they stopped chewing. Also feed through muzzles can stop chewing and some icky sprays might work but they usualy just go to onother area that is not sprayed. I have been told that the product called Deer Away works pretty good and it smells horrid. I have never used it for that reason but it might be worth looking into. I recomend McNasty by Eqyss. GAG!! yes I tasted it and what a mistake. I thought I was going to rip my own tongue out to get the taste out of my mouth. eeeewwww
Windsucking is a term used in Europe and in racing industry here in the USA and is incorrectly used to call cribbing. You may fiind windsucking being used synonomously but its incorrect.

[tbtrainer]

Windsucking and Cribbing are both used to describe what I would call cribbing...

Although it is also called windsucking coming from the other end!

Just thought I'd be a total PITA...

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

windsucking
SYLLABICATION:wind·suck·ingPRONUNCIATION: wndskng

NOUN:The injurious habit of drawing in and swallowing air. Used of horses. OTHER FORMS:windsucker —NOUN

[shenanigans]

Cribbing / windsucking can lead to all of the above stated issues, but it doesnt need to.
There are a number of reasons & "new findings" that you can pull your hair out going through but in most cases a horses will begin to crib as a way to deal with stress, what the stress is isnt as important because even when that particular stress is identified it wont put a stop to the cribbing normally.
The only option is to find a different tool for them to deal with stressful situations which can not always be done easily, so then you need to look at minimizing your horses reaction to stress in general.
My ottb mare is a fruit loop of the biggest kind, flakey, & her own worst enemy in the stress coping department, so I have to be creative in what I can do to alleviate her stress, which triggers change form week to week sometimes & it can be exhausting.
The times that I do manage to help her deal effectively with her stress, however fleeting it maybe I consider that a very good day, and I hope that it is a good foundation & these new "steps" will give her other tools or options for the future.
Implementing small changes in the routine with them, such a more one on one, not being stalled, ponying your horse with his buddy on a ride...whatever you think may help that particular horse so that the stress is minimized at least for the moment can be useful.
Some horses crib out of boredom, but I have found with the majority them it is stress induced.
When your bored & feeling "cabin feverish" that is a reaction to stress, does that make sense?

[Native Winds]

ok:Horseman's dictionary by Steven Price, page 182..."Windsucking: the stable vice of taking air into the lungs without biting onto anything which distinquishes windsucking from a cribber." In college there was an arabian (polish) named John Snow (hatefull old crone) who would "crib" by doing the exact thing decribed above.

UCDavis Book of Horses, edited by Mordecai Siegal.."Windsucking is somewhat like cribbing rather than placing it teeth into wood, however, the horse simply flexes its neck while forciblly swallowing air. A distinct belching sound may be may then be produced as air is expelled" Term synonomous with cribbing.

All about Racing by Ervin Grundy, page 56...Windsucking: "When a filly asperates air through her vulva while racing or working. Caslix procedure usualy corrects this problem."

Horse Owner's Veterinary Handbook, James M Griffin MD and Tom Gore DVM page 353..Windsucking:.".....The reproductive examination begins by inspecting the perineum for the defect called "windsucking" or pneumovagina. The windsucking perineal conformation permits air and fecal material to enter and pool in the vagina, resulting in a persistsnt source of baterial infection..........."

Merk Vet Manual, page 1305 Windsucking.....Cribbing (windsucking or crib biting)is a distinct behavior. different from wood chewing, that involves grasping a horizontal surface with the incisors and flexing the neck without swallowing of air. In extreme cases, the horse may do this 3,000 times a day. The activity makes a strange, nonflatulent sound. Cribbing is most easily diagnosed by noting the missing U shaped peices from the available fencing (includes all wood and metal solid objects.)worn teeth and develope thick neck muscles. Cribbers tend to have lower levels of endogenous opiate, and cribbing is postulated to stimulate opiate release.

"The assertation that horses learn to crib from other horses has never been substantiated"...mostly caused via stress.

I guess its in anyone's court. Go figure.

[IIIBarsV]

Horses will crib from boredom, and stress (which can be caused by various things).

Then there is human made cribbing which is generally caused when a high-energy pasture ornament who is getting a ridiculous amount of high-energy sweet feed grain gets stuck in their stall because it's too muddy outside for most of their lives. (Witnessed this in an arabian gelding I was planning to buy).

We had a pony here who was a hardcore cribber. (Was a boarder). A very high-energy pony who was also an easy keeper, and had been kept in a standing stall and then tied to a fence outside instead of turned out in pasture. Extremely defensive and aggressive over food. Her cribbing slowly decreased in severity as long as she was turned outside regularly or living outside, on very little grain and a normal hay diet, and getting ridden hard at least four days a week.

Both horses were/are young (6 years and under) and high-energy horses who were doing a whole lot of nothing most of their early lives. In the case of the arabian, I am very disappointed in the owner. The horse is also an easy keeper and in no way needed two milk-container scoops full of plain old sweet feed and oats, when he was in no work whatsoever and only turned out with one older arabian mare (his mother).

Please people, learn to recognise good weight on a horse and adjust your feed schedule according... and if you have a high-energy ADHD horse, for god's sake don't give them ANY sweet feed (anything with molasses in it) or jack them up on performance horse feed.

[Native Winds]

Stress(from many factors and even staying in a stall for 23 out of 24 hours is stressfull to the anmal as well), boredom, is usualy the cause for why many show Saddlebreds kept up crib. I went to a Saddlbred stable I was inquireing about boarding my late mare. As I walked around the barn was dark, closed up, tons of cob webs, smelled worse than I was comfortable with, dark stalls, buggeyed saddlbreds looking at you or trying to sniff and greet you through the rails of thier stalls. But the cribbing going on was just unbeleiveable. This is not the only Saddlebred and TWH barn I have been in. I have been in several and its the same thing. THe TWH show horses are just as bad.
I have worked in TB industry and have run across a hand full of cribbers not epeidemic like and I have worked on Hunter/Jumper farms and there was very few and most times none and etc. Most of those horses get time out be it for a few hours or all day, have well lit stalls, lack of cob webs and the stalls where bigger for the most part.. I worked on a Hunter Jumper barn in KY called Helmsley farm and there was only 2 cribbers on that farm. One belonged to a boarder who had a TB broodmare there and another had a yearling TB there also. Both came with the vice but the barn was built from cinder blocks and there for no damage was done to the barn. Those two stayed out 90% of the time in a large pasture and was in only to eat. It seemed that most of thehorses where pretty happy except for your occasional grumps. I went to a Saddlebred farm in KY to work on and I was taken aback at the amount of horses that cribbed. This barn had 6 saddlebreds in it, 5 of them cribbed. The one that was outside all the time did not crib.

Its definatly a man made thing for the most part. some just accidently figured it out perhaps by chewing first and happend to pull back some and got that little buzz going. I was giving riding lessons at a saddlebred farm once (beginers and intermediates) ther ewas one mare who had showed most of her life and was detatched from every thing and would crib and crib, and crib. Take a bite of food, crib, take another bite, crib. She did not react to her surroundings and was tongue tied every time she was ridden though this mare did nothing but walk and occasional trot. I refused to use the tongue tie and the mare NEVER once put her tongue over the bit or acted lilly. She seeemed VERY depressed and her facial expression was like "can I die now?". She was older in her early 20s and never had a life. In that particular barn I say 80% of the horse there cribbed, 25% weaved, stall walked, kicked at stall, paw endlessly, Some both cribbed and weaved or stall walked, chew on things, or rake thier teeth against the wall (eeeek like fingernails across a chalkboard) and the list goes on. This happens in show TWH barns, Any gaited barn for that matter. I am talking about the most affected breeds and barns.

[MaggieSue]

My friend uses Wrap Last on her stalls-works great, just don't touch it!
You could also put electric wire where he is sucking, that'll stop him.

[Native Winds]

Many ppl use metal flashing to put on wooden ledges to keep the horse from ruining the wood.