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Fixing up the crib
Nov. 9th, 2004 10:23 amI was asked by a couple folk what was up with the back of the stall in the picture of Amigo laying dawn, mentoned earlier: http://www.livejournal.com/users/murakozi/35752.html
Amigo is a cribber. It's a stall vice that some horses pick up. A horse'll clamp its teeth onto something, usually wood, and suck in air in a grunt. In the process, they end up eating away at the wood. Sucking wind like that is pretty addictive. I've heard a few reasons for it, but the most prevalent seems to say that they get a mild rush from it. It's a bad habit, to be sure. Aside from the damage done to the stall/fence/tree/whatever, the horse also ends up with air in his gut, and often doesn't eat enough, so that they end up losing weight. It can also make 'em colic. Unfortunately, like any addiction, it's danged hard to break them of the habit. There are collars, and shock thingies, and stuff you can paint on wood to make it taste bad, that are all supposed to make a horse stop. They're not really very effective, though. Amigo had a cribbing collar and it worked for a couple weeks, before he started up again. Painting it with nasty tasting stuff didn't even slow him. Annoyingly, most of the stalls have a bit of angle iron at the rear ledge, but not Amigo's.
I still haven't heard anything about how he's doing. I suspect I'd have been told by now if things went bad after I last saw him on Sunday.
Amigo is a cribber. It's a stall vice that some horses pick up. A horse'll clamp its teeth onto something, usually wood, and suck in air in a grunt. In the process, they end up eating away at the wood. Sucking wind like that is pretty addictive. I've heard a few reasons for it, but the most prevalent seems to say that they get a mild rush from it. It's a bad habit, to be sure. Aside from the damage done to the stall/fence/tree/whatever, the horse also ends up with air in his gut, and often doesn't eat enough, so that they end up losing weight. It can also make 'em colic. Unfortunately, like any addiction, it's danged hard to break them of the habit. There are collars, and shock thingies, and stuff you can paint on wood to make it taste bad, that are all supposed to make a horse stop. They're not really very effective, though. Amigo had a cribbing collar and it worked for a couple weeks, before he started up again. Painting it with nasty tasting stuff didn't even slow him. Annoyingly, most of the stalls have a bit of angle iron at the rear ledge, but not Amigo's.
I still haven't heard anything about how he's doing. I suspect I'd have been told by now if things went bad after I last saw him on Sunday.