Why use a cribbing collar on pastured horse?

[StarRidgeAcres]

I've never used them but thought they are designed to stop the chewing on wood stalls. Are there other uses? There are at least 2 geldings next door that are in a 20 acre pasture and they have them on. Seems weird to me.

Somebody enlighten me.

 

[Marty]

Parm, cribbing and wood chewing are two different things. A crib collar, which by the way is basically useless, does not stop a horse from chewing wood. For wood chewing you need to use any number of spray products sold on the market for that (chew stop, etc.) or just rub on plain old soap.

A cribbing collar is supposed to prevent a horse from windsucking. That is when a horse will latch on to a board, pull back, and suck in air. Not a good thing. I would not have a windsucker on my place.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Thanks Marty. I've never been able to keep the two straight in my head. Questions: why wear it in the pasture and why wouldn't you have a horse that wind sucked?

 

[Minimor]

Some people leave them on in pasture because the horse will crib on anything he can latch his teeth onto--fence post, water tub, tree stump....whatever.

Generally a pastured horse is less inclined to crib, but a really hard core cribber will do it anywhere/everywhere.

Personally I don't like to see a collar left on out in the pasture--they can turn & choke a horse--but then I don't leave halters or anything on any of my horses & thankfully I own no cribbers. Haven't had one of those on the place in 20+ years (had a cribber mare here for breeding at that time) and it's been 40 years since we owned a cribber.

 

[Eagle]

Parm, are your horses really close to these cribbers because horses can learn be copying others? I would think they must be really bad cribbers if they are left out with collars on.

 

[Mareish Mom]

I also never leave halters on but I sure do hate a cribber. I had one here that would crib on ANYTHING! He had to wear a cribbing collar (which helped, but did not completely eliminate the behavior) and I just hated it. Other than the cribbing he was the best horse I've even owned or ridden, but I sold him so fast when he started to teach my baby to crib! Once they learn to do it they never stop, it's like a drug.

 

[Jill]

Cribbing is a vice that horses learn to do, and they can teach others. Even with grass to eat, they will sometimes crib on the fence-line and teach that to other horses. While doing it, they can suck wind and that can lead to gas colics... I do think it usually develops in "over stalled" horses, but like I said, out in the field, horses teach it to others. It's a vice that qualifies riding horses as being "unsound".

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Holy crap! I had no idea they would mimic each other like that. Yes, some of my horses share a fenceline with these horses. The fence is one of those old crappy barbed wire ones using the cedar trees as posts. I had to line my side with horse fence to try and keep mine away from the barbs. But the still congregate to talk to each other.

This is normally their hay field. I don't even know why they are using it for horses.

And they are missing one. Described to me as an old, thin gelding. If I had a barn with 40 stalls and fans like they do my Puddin sure wouldn't be pastured, she'd be in one of those stalls under a fan. Their gelding is probably dead from 10 days of 115 degree heat indexes. I've had to keep Puddin in my back yard with a fan run from an extension cord from the house and a sprinkler.

Thanks for the education.

 

[Mona]

One more thing to consider...are you absolutely, 100% sure the collars they are wearing are actually cribbing collars? I have seen of some large horse places that will leave collars (like dog collars but made for horses, also known as grooming collars) on their horses while out in the pasture, instead of a halter. A cribbing collar has more than one strap, a regulr collar has only the one, as I said, just like a dog collar.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

No, I can't say for sure. Both have a strap in front and one behind the ears. One has one strap under the throat latch, the second seems to have two...but I haven't seen that one up close. He doesn't come to the fence to see me.

One more thing to consider...are you absolutely, 100% sure the collars they are wearing are actually cribbing collars? I have seen of some large horse places that will leave collars (like dog collars but made for horses, also known as grooming collars) on their horses while out in the pasture, instead of a halter. A cribbing collar has more than one strap, a regulr collar has only the one, as I said, just like a dog collar.

 

[Mona]

Yes, then from what you are describing, it certainly does sound like cribbing straps then.

 

[Eagle]

That isn't good about the poor older and thin gelding, are you sure they haven't put him inside? As for your fence line, you could ask them to remove the 2 cribbers. How long have they been next to each other?

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

This neighbor has about 300 acres and about 75 horses. They are a boarding barn. Some horses are stalled, some are pastured. The gelding, they say, is probably down in the woods somewhere. I offered to help look for him but they declined.

 

[Eagle]

That is so sad! Can you go and look for him anyway or would you be trespassing?

 

[leeapachemoon]

"It has been anecdotally reported that horses can learn to copy these behaviors from other horses, although this has not been substantiated by scientific study."

 

There is NO scientific proof that cribbing is learned from other horses!!! In fact, most cribbers start the behavior from being left alone in a stall for long periods of time. AKA boredom. Cribbing is an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, like chewing your nails. Do you learn to chew your nails from watching other people chew their nails??? I guess it is possible, if you have nothing better to do. I owned a cribber for 5 years, he never taught any of my other horses to crib. He would rather crib then eat so he wore a Miracle Collar all the time. That's the only one he never broke.

 

 

[HGFarm]

I knew someone who had a horse that cribbed- and it was from being locked up in a small pen-- would rather crib than eat. I remember it colicked- lost weight SO badly- just was a mess. The horse would leave a full feeder of hay to go crib. It didnt matter what was going on- it would rather crib than do anything- very sad.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

God, this sounds like a horrible problem. I feel TERRIBLE for the horses. It's obviously something they can't control or stop easily if some will leave food for it. How sad.

The one horse that comes up to the fence with the collar on is very friendly. He likes to be scratched and seems very inquisitive. The other one is always out grazing; never comes to the fence when I'm out there.

From the fencing I can see for this pasture, there isn't much they can latch onto. It's mainly barbed wired. There are a lot of woods though so I guess tress may be an option.

I went in my back pasture and looked over the fence for the missing gelding. Couldn't see anything, but it's mainly woods at that part. I shook a bucket of grain, but didn't get a response. It's been 100+ degrees here (heat index) for about 10 days and there's not relief in sight. I think the gelding may have succombed to the heat somewhere in the woods, but I don't know. I hope he isn't suffering somewhere.