CHAPTER XLVI 

 CRIBBING AND WEAVING 



/^RIB-BITING or "cribbing" has been observed 

 ^-^ and discussed for hundreds, if not thousands, of 

 years, but its cause is still in dispute. Some authorities 

 maintain that a horse cribs because his stomach is full 

 of gas, and he tries to get rid of it. Others declare 

 that indigestion is the result, not the cause of cribbing; 

 and this is probably the correct view. A horse cribs 

 because he is idle and restless; he cribs to "pass away 

 the time." He begins by examining all the objects 

 within his reach, licks his manger, takes the halter rope 

 in his teeth, explores the sides of his stall, bites gently 

 at all convenient projections in manger or hay-rack; 

 and from biting to wind-sucking is an easy transition. 



Hunger, I am inclined to believe, is a frequent cause 

 of cribbing, although I have never seen this theory 

 advanced. A hungry, idle horse has an uncomfortable 

 feeling in his stomach, nibbles at one object and an- 

 other, and finally sucks in air for want of anything else 

 to fill the vacuum of which he is painfully conscious. 

 For this reason I think that horses receiving only a 

 small grain ration should be fed with hay three or four 

 times a day — not necessarily a big feed, but enough 

 to prevent them from becoming uncomfortably hungry. 

 This applies especially to the noon feed. 



There are other causes of cribbing. For example, a 



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