Overcoming abnormal behaviours
Why does your horse behave like this?
There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that diet can influence the development of abnormal behaviours such as crib-biting, wind sucking and wood chewing, these behaviours are not seen in wild horses.
If allowed horses spend a very large proportion of their time eating; the motivation to perform “grazing” behaviour seen in horses in the wild remains in domestic horses but is often frustrated because traditional feeds require less chewing than forage and can be eaten relatively quickly.
Backed up by science
Research has shown that abnormal behaviours such as crib biting are also associated with some forms of digestive disturbance; the risk of crib biting is increased by low forage or high starch diets (McGreevy et al 1995). Therefore crib- biting may be an attempt by the horse to counteract some of the gastric discomfort caused by a high starch meal (Nicol 2005)
How you can help
Feeds that include long fibre also increase chewing activity, research has shown that feeds containing a minimum of 20% added long fibre lengthen eating time (Ellis et al 2005); this results in increased production of saliva, which may help neutralise excess stomach acid and thus limit the performance of abnormal behaviours that are in an attempt to relieve gastric discomfort. In our trials of feeds designed to increase the time spent chewing, two out of the five foals involved actually stopped crib-biting altogether and one foal showed a significant reduction in cribbing behaviour (Nicol et al 2002).
All of the WINERGY Equilibrium feeds contain a high level of long fibre, in the form of lucerne, Timothy hay or oat straw that will encourage chewing and extend eating time. The high oil level of WINEGRY Equilibrium High and Growth may also slow gastric emptying and the inclusion of lucerne is considered to have a buffering effect on the stomach acid.