The habit is generally caused by boredom in the stables environment and/or copying other horses that do it.

Such boredom can be increased by the lack of opportunity for the horse to graze which they do for around 16 hours in their paddock environment.

The feeding of lots of hay keeps horses occupied whereas in the Racing Industry where small hard feeds are fed, the chances of boredom and eventual wind sucking is drastically increased and in real life this is where I meet most of them.

To carry out this nasty habit they usually need to be able to grab on to a door, log, wooden rail or whatever else with their front teeth and then to gulp air down into their gut. Some do not however.

Researchers suspected that horses were cibbing to try and relieve high stomach acid levels caused by the feeding of high concentrate feeds eg oats, barley and other grains.

At pasture and in the wild, horses spend around 16 hours a day foraging for food, often of a high fibre, low concentrated type.  The result is that their digestive tract is "trickle fed" and constantly processing food as it passes through the gut.

When confined indoors, or even in a yard, and reliant on their keepers for their source of feed, the stomach of the horse goes empty for long periods of time - much longer than it was actually designed to do.  To add to this, they are then feed high concentrate feeds.

Research conducted at Auburn University's Department shows results clearly indicate that cribbers have a more acidic gastric environment than normal horses, supporting the theory that gastrointestinal irritation is a motivating cause for cribbing.

Over the years through clinic animal practise I have custom made and perfected the below natural medicine formulas that are suggested to give relief from this specific ailment. There may be more than one formula suggest or related products, so read through each one and see if your pet or animal need all, some or just the one formula.

Natural medicines will last several years and are suitable for all species and ages.

Instructions and diet sheet are also included with these formulas.