750 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



The question of the amount of exercise a horse should 

 receive will be dealt with later. 



There are certain Stable Vices which must now engage 

 attention, they are Windsucking and Crib-biting, Weaving, 

 and Kicking. 



Windsucking and Crib-biting may conveniently be con- 

 sidered together as they are frequently complemental ; 

 though a horse may be a windsucker without being a crib- 

 biter, he cannot be a crib-biter without being a windsucker. 

 It is quite likely in many cases that crib-biting is learned 

 before windsucking ; the animal during the time it is being 

 dressed frequently lays hold of the manger from ticklish- 

 ness, and it is conceivable that this may in some cases be 

 the forerunner of crib-biting. Other horses learn it by 

 imitation, and it is said the lesson may be imparted in a 

 few minutes, which in our opinion gives the horse credit 

 for more observation and powers of imitation than we are 

 inclined to believe. 



In whatever way the vice is acquired, there is only one 

 thing of which we can be positively certain ; that it is 

 contracted as the result of idleness. Hard-worked horses 

 seldom crib-bite. It may also prove to be hereditary ; 

 common among British horses, it is unknown among 

 those of S. Africa. 



The question of whether air is sucked in or expelled is 

 one that can only be settled by experiment, and then is 

 only of academic interest. We believe there is no doubt 

 air is sucked in, though the position assumed is suggestive 

 of something being expelled. 



Nothing can cure these vices. Mangers may be taken 

 away, and the horse fed from a nose bag, or off the ground, 

 but it is not defeated ; it soon learns to windsuck without 

 crib-biting. Straps around the neck are useful in a few 

 cases, but no horse ever forgets the vice. That plea- 

 sure is derived from the vice is evident from the fact 

 that the punishment of a neck strap with an iron gullet 

 plate is no deterrent, while perhaps better evidence is 

 afforded by the incisor teeth which may be worn down so 



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