STUDY ON CRIBBING-CAUSES-PREVENTION AND CURE. 
95 
1 insist strongly, and with reason, on the movement of trac¬ 
tion upwards, as it is a rational movement. 
2d.— In the Stable. —While at grass and in his state of nature, 
the horse^takes his food at the level in height of his feet, or at 
best up to his knees. In the stable, the food is placed in racks 
some distance above the level of the floor. In these racks, the 
food is almost always dry, and offers a resistance in proportion to 
the manner in which it may be tied up and to the openings between 
the bars of the rack, which may greatly vary. 
To take hold of the food, then, the horse has to perform mo¬ 
tions of traction from above downwards , by contracting the flexors 
of the head. These motions of traction downwards become then, 
the occasional cause of cribbing. 
If the movements upward are natural in the prehension of 
food, those downward are unnatural in the same physiological act. 
When a horse begins to crib, it is always by pulling his food 
from the rack, straw principally, which is the most difficult to 
take hold of. 
Let us now examine a young horse, having a good appetite, 
hungry, and which has in his rack but a little straw. He takes 
hold of it, finds some difficulty after seizing it with the lips and 
teeth in bringing it in his mouth. To complete the prehension of his 
mouthful, he performs an energetic movement of traction down¬ 
wards ; with this movement all the flexor muscles of the head and 
neck, including the sterno hyoideus and thyroideus, enter into ac¬ 
tion ; these last muscles depress the pharynx, hence the dilatation 
of this organ, the rarefaction of the air it contains, the rushing 
of the external air in the pharynx; the shock, the eructation, in 
one word, the cribbing, as I have demonstrated before. 
VII. 
Many young horses which never showed a disposition to crib 
when in the stable of the farmer who raised them, become crib- 
bers when they are alone in a stable, especially if for some reason 
the volume of their ration is reduced. 
It is known that farmers give their young horses pretty nearly 
all the hay and straw they will eat; this regime increases the 
