Enough is Enough!

Normally I don’t have a problem with cribbers and I think it best to let them get on with it, but recently Niko has been very lazy about foraging, can’t say that I blame him as there is very little to forage, but it has been causing him to build up weight more towards his front and with his already poor top line he quite simply looks a mess also he hurt his shoulder. So we have stopped him hopefully for good.

We tried the Cribox and sadly it didn’t work for long as every time it rained the Cribox was diluted and stopped working, so that was just no good as we ended up buying all the Cribox from the tack shop and it still wasn’t enough.

So we tried chilli sauce as we had heard it worked sadly Niko seemed to quite like it and was very happy cribbing on his nice chilli flavour posts, so again no success.

Then one could turn to a cribbing collar or a muzzle, but cribbing collars don’t really work unless you do them up so tight that they are nearly choking the horse, so despite what some may say they aren’t a humane way of stopping a cribber. A muzzle is also a bad way to go about stopping a cribber as it can make them head shy.

So we finally got around to crib proofing one section of the paddock by running a strand of electric wire along the top of the fence posts where Niko would normally crib, this has worked brilliantly and he now doesn’t even try to get a quick crib in, he hasn’t shocked himself once as he is well aware of what the wire is.

I really am quite happy about this and I do think this will work I know that Niko will never really stop being a cribber and if he gets the chances to crib he most likely will, but he is looking better already for not cribbing.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my review of the saddle pad now I have had time to give it a fair crack at the whip so to speak.

September News

We have finally got around to burning the last of the trees that were ripped up to make room for the paddock, as you can see it was quite a big fire and the flames reached high in to the air.

But sadly I think we will have to relight it to clear up the last bits of branch and twig, but at least then the second paddock will be clear of trees and then all we have got to do is put in the fence posts, easier said than done.

In other news Niko went back to cribbing because after the rain the Cribox was not as effective and he started cribbing again.

We did try using chilli sauce as we had heard it worked but Niko seemed to quite like it so that didn’t work and just ended up giving him… well lets just say the chilli sauce didn’t get on with him!

So we have tried a different way of stopping him that seems to be working but more on the latter.

Stopping a Cribber

Niko hurt himself recently, we think he must have pulled something in his shoulder, I don’t think it’s anything too serious, however he has been cribbing and making it worse so not long ago, we went to get something to stop him.

Yep that’s right Cribox, we have tried Cribox before with little success, but having said that Niko had not been living out before, when he is in a box he is surrounded by things he can crib on like the door and parts of the walls, but when he is in the paddock it is a much larger space, so he has longer to walk before he can crib.

So I set about applying the Cribox paint to the tops of the fence posts and a little of the way down the post, I really had to use a lot of Cribox for the first coat to give it a good covering and let some of it soak into the post. I now give them a quick do every day to make sure the post has a good covering of Cribox, if the posts are not repainted frequently the Cribox will not be strong enough to stop the horse cribbing.

And here is the finished result of all that painting, I have given the post a thick coat of Cribox on the top where he will grip the wood with his top set of teeth, and a slightly thinner coat down the side were he sometimes touches the wood with his bottom jaw, this has been working well so far.

It has been working so well that I haven’t see Niko crib once since we started this, and he looks to be pretty much sound, not quite right yet but almost there. He has also been spending more time searching for food and is getting a nicer shape to him, so all in all it is working out quite nicely.

Not As Bad As It Looks

Sweet Niko what could he ever do that is so awful? The answer is of course nothing, but that isn't what everybody thinks as Niko has some habits, bad habits. He is in fact a cribber. He has been cribbing all the time I have known him and I still love him just as much as I do the other horses. I knew that he cribbed when I bought him and I was still happy to buy him, more then happy he was my after all my first horse.



There are lots of different opinions on cribbers but I have to say that many of them are just barbaric. I am of course referring to practices such as surgically cutting a muscle and nerve in the neck to prevent cribbing. The use of a cribbing cage, which was used on Niko before we bought him and had made him head shy.

We have tried to stop him with Cribox and one of the livery yards where we kept our horses insisted that he wear a cribbing collar, it didn't work and now I just let him crib. Our vet has told us that the current theory on cribbing is that it is a form of stress relief which then becomes a habit and that providing it doesn't cause health problems it is kinder to let horses crib.

If you have an opinion on cribbers please feel free to post it.

And the problem with the bonfire is not yet resolved, will keep you posted.