Cribbing and Other Stable Vices: Why Horses Do Them and What Actually Helps

By Gayle Woods Editors Updated 5 min read

Horse people call them stable vices, as if they were bad habits a horse chose. Researchers prefer the term stereotypies: repetitive behaviors with no obvious purpose, which develop when an animal's environment doesn't meet its needs. Wild and free-living horses almost never crib or weave. Stabled horses do, and some do it for hours a day.

Understanding why horses develop these behaviors is the key to managing them.

The common stable vices

  • Cribbing (crib-biting): the horse grabs a horizontal surface, such as a fence board, stall door or bucket rim, with its front teeth, arches its neck, pulls back and sucks in air with a grunting sound.
  • Windsucking: the same air-gulping action without grabbing anything.
  • Weaving: swaying from side to side, shifting weight between the front feet, often at the stall door.
  • Stall walking: pacing repeatedly around the stall in the same pattern.
  • Wood chewing: actually eating wood from fences and stalls. Unlike cribbing, the horse swallows the wood.
  • Pawing and stall kicking: repetitive digging or kicking, often around feeding time.

What causes them

Research points to a combination of genetics and management. Many factors overlap:

  • Not enough time eating forage. In the wild, horses graze for most of the day. A horse that finishes two hay meals in a couple of hours has many hours with nothing to chew.
  • Large grain meals. High-starch meals are linked to cribbing in several studies.
  • Stall confinement and isolation. Horses kept in stalls for long hours, especially without seeing or touching other horses, are more likely to develop stereotypies.
  • Stressful weaning. Many cribbers start around weaning, especially foals weaned abruptly and moved to stalls.
  • Genetics. Some breeds, including Thoroughbreds, show the behaviors more often, and they can run in families.
  • Stomach discomfort. Cribbing is linked to gastric ulcers and stomach acid. One theory is that cribbing produces extra saliva, which helps buffer acid.

Many people believe horses learn cribbing by watching a cribber. Studies haven't found much evidence for that. It's more likely that horses kept in the same barn under the same conditions develop the same habits.

Is cribbing harmful?

Cribbing itself is not always dangerous, but it does have costs:

  • Worn front teeth. Long-term cribbers wear the outer edge of their upper incisors.
  • Weight loss in some horses that crib instead of eating.
  • Damage to fences, doors and buckets.
  • A specific type of colic. Cribbing horses have a higher risk of epiploic foramen entrapment, where a loop of small intestine gets trapped in an opening in the abdomen. It's rare but serious.
  • A link to gastric ulcers, which cause their own problems. See colic in horses.

Weaving and stall walking can cause uneven hoof wear, weight loss and fatigue.

What actually helps

The most effective changes address the horse's day, not the behavior.

More turnout

Horses that spend more time outside, moving around and grazing, generally crib less. Even a few more hours of turnout a day helps. See how many acres a horse needs.

More forage, spread out over the day

  • Offer hay as close to free choice as your horse's weight allows.
  • Use slow feeders or hay nets so hay lasts longer.
  • Feed several smaller meals instead of two big ones.
  • See how much to feed a horse.

Less starch

  • Reduce or cut out grain and sweet feed where you can.
  • Replace calories with fat and fiber: beet pulp, alfalfa, or a high-fat, high-fiber feed.

Company

  • Turn the horse out with others when possible.
  • In the stall, let it see and touch neighbors. Open stall fronts, half walls or stall guards instead of solid doors help.
  • A stall mirror helps some weavers, who seem to settle when they can "see" another horse.

Check for ulcers

Ask your vet about gastric ulcers, especially if your horse is picky, girthy, losing weight or sour. Treating ulcers may reduce cribbing in some horses.

Enrichment

Stall toys, treat balls and lick toys give some horses something to do. They work best alongside more forage and turnout, not instead of them.

Cribbing collars and other devices

Cribbing collars fit around the throat and press when the horse arches its neck to crib. They reduce cribbing in many horses but don't address the cause. Some studies suggest that preventing a strongly motivated horse from cribbing can raise its stress levels. If you use one, make sure it fits correctly, without rubbing, and combine it with management changes.

Other options include:

  • Bitter-tasting sprays and paint for wood chewers
  • A strand of electric wire along fence tops
  • Metal edging on stall doors
  • Anti-weave stall grills that limit swaying at the door

Surgery to cut certain neck muscles exists but is rarely used and doesn't always work.

Don't punish. Hitting or shouting at a cribbing or weaving horse adds stress and tends to make the behavior worse.

Wood chewing and eating dirt

Wood chewing often happens when horses don't have enough forage, especially in winter or when hay is limited. More hay is usually the fix. Treated wood can be toxic, so don't let horses chew it.

Horses that eat dirt or sand may be looking for salt or minerals, or may be bored. Offer loose salt and a vitamin and mineral supplement, and feed hay off the ground on sandy soil to reduce the risk of sand colic.

Foals eating their mothers' manure is normal. It helps them build the gut bacteria they need. In adult horses, eating manure usually points to too little forage.

Buying a horse that cribs

Many cribbers are excellent horses. Sellers should disclose cribbing, and buyers should ask. Some barns don't accept cribbers, so check with your boarding barn before you buy. See buying your first horse.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions