wundahoss
Posted : 12/26/2010 2:17:45 AM
Hi Natasha, I filled out your survey on a friend's horse who lives with mine. He's the 13yo(app) WB that is paddocked 24/7.
I appreciate this is just a basic project you're doing, but as you haven't asked about previous management, health, length of time it's been going on, how the horse is fed(you asked basically what it's fed) or whether it's been treated for ulcers or otherwise, I'm not sure you'll get much use out of the data you're collecting.
Eg. I told the horse's age & breed, that he lived out 24/7, that he was fed on hay(because there was no option for grass) and that he still cribs. I was unable to tell in the survey that he used to be a show horse, locked up most of the time, fed large & infrequent(only twice daily) grain meals. He was a 'hard keeper' no matter what they fed him... apparently. That he was scoped for ulcers when his current owner got him at about 8yo & it was found that he was full of them. He was treated & has lived out in a herd, in the manner of a horse ever since. His health quickly improved & he's now an 'easy keeper'. But 'cribbing' is a stereotypical behaviour, meaning unless caught & causes treated quickly, generally becomes a strong, often unbreakable habit that persists despite causes having been alleviated.
Years ago they did a study on cribbing of Australian racehorses. I forget the figures & details now, so don't quote me.... But the gist of it was that due to the high grain/starch feeding and manner of feeding(they were generally only fed in 2-3 large meals daily) that a large percentage of racehorses developed the cribbing 'habit'. Of all horses that cribbed, scoping showed in excess of 90% of them had stomach ulcers or other gastric complaints.
Can't recall if it was in the same study or a similar one, that they also examined the relationship between cribbing & colic & weightloss, etc. It was found that cribbing can definitely damage front teeth, which wear unevenly with the gripping/chewing of solid objects, but that it was unlikely that cribbing was the cause of colic, weightloss, ulcers, etc. It seems that it is instead, along with those other 'ailments', a symptom of bad feeding/management practices. It was also found that it is not likely for horses to pick up the habit from copying others. Horses don't tend to learn in this manner anyway and horses who were thought to have picked it up because of mimicking were also found to have physical gastric problems.
Sorry that these were studies I researched many years ago & can't give you their sources. I'm sure that if you look up 'equine behaviour' sites you'll find a lot on the psychological aspects of cribbing tho.