windsucking

Jobi-Wan Kenobi

Jobi-Wan Kenobi

Every Day Is A School Day
Oct 10, 2001
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Rotherham, South Yorks
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Hi everyone!

What causes a horse to windsuck?

The obvious answer is boredom but in this case I really don't think that's so.

The thing is that since getting her home we have seen Polly windsucking on the fence posts. I'm not too bothered by it. I have asked her previous owners about it, although I haven't asked Janey as I thought she'd be too busy at Heather's. Neither of them have seen her doing it.

I have only seen her doing it after she has been fed in the mornings. I was wondering if this could be the cause? The fields really are too big to warrant any of the herd to get bored, although there is a cribber with them, and she only does it for a few minutes before settling down to graze again.

When they come in for the winter, hopefully this weekend she will probably wear a collar to prevent her doing this, although I don't want to put one on her in the field for obvious reasons. She will have daily turnout and plenty of toys to keep her occupied. I'll also be able to work her everyday.

Is it possible that giving her a feed will cause her to want to windsuck? All she has is a token feed of herbichop mixed with hifi lite, a few carrots sliced lengthways and water to dampen it down. She's on maintenence and there is still plenty of grass in the field. It would be unfair not to feed her as the rest of the herd gets fed. She isn't rugged at the moment and has just been given Panacur Guard last week.

Hope you can help,

Jo ;)

PS. Ponyvet, would I be ok to give her a broad spectrum wormer before she comes in, even though I only gave her Equine Guard last week?
 
Was she stabled before you got her home? Most horses do start windsucking when they are stabled and unfortunately carry the habit on wherever they are. It probably does start because they are bored in a stable but like biting your nails or worse stsill SMOKING a habit is difficult to break. possibly giving her a feed by a gate or fence just puts the temptation in her way but I bet she does it more often than that.

Horses often don't do it when people are around because then they aren't bored as the interesting people are there! but you can tell a horse that does as they obviously have to crib bite to do it and their teeth are flattened at the front. there's not much you can do about it, except make sure that she's not bored when you bring her in. Give her hay in a small holed hay net, an equiball or something similar to play with, a swede on a rope or something! That way you're limiting her need to do it. Have never heard of anyone curing a horse of it, or how! collars sometimes work but sometimes don't. I don't like them personally.

If you gave her panacur guard last week you don't really need to give her anything else just yet, but if you have to strongid P should be fie I think. I wouldn't waste the money though!
 
Ponyvet,

As far as I know Janey had her living out for most of the time that she has been off work (a year or more). Since getting her home Polly has been out in absolutely massive fields and not seen a stable until last night.

I got to the yard last night to see to Smartie and discovered that they had brought them all in from the fields. Since then she has had ad lib hay and I'll be getting her a toy of some sort this lunchtime.

I've had a look at her teeth and they don't show any wear from cribbing. When I've seen her windsucking she has always placed her chin on the posts and not her teeth.

Jo ;)
 
having a year off could well cause it, it's like us staying indoors all the time we, could get addicted to eating, tv or internet ect,
she i mean they can only socialise or eat.
a horse up our stables, lives out and windsucks all the time, he can even do it laying down god nows how!!! :rolleyes:
windsucking is sucking in air and like burping
cribbing is putting teeth on post pulling back and burping type thing horses will only normally do 1 of them!!!!!
 
Since windsucking can be an outward sign of stress, could it be that the mare is still a bit stressed out from moving homes? Is she being fed out in the field with the others? It could also be a sign of anxiety about being fed in with the herd. If a group of horses are all being fed together like that, they will usually try and eat theirs as fast as they can so that their food doesn't get pinched by one of the others, so this could be stressing her out as well. I personally wouldn't put a cribbing collar on as a matter of course when you bring her in. Hopefully she will settle into a good routine and not need one.
 
Stressed?

I think there is a good chance that she is still a little nervy about moving homes. She now has another pair bond called Autumn and apparently caused a great deal of fuss when the yard owner tried to stable her away from Autumn in her allocated Stable. Poor Vican got evicted and Polly is now next door to Autumn. The stables are in an old fashioned barn and consist of 41/2 foot high breezeblock walls and thick plywood doors so that all the horses have contact with their neighbours.

We had planned to keep them out all winter (with rugs) if possible but from what I hear the land maybe flooded again this year. You see it belongs to the water board and they let it to a local farmer and he sublets it to us. If the land was to be flooded unfortunately the horses would stand a good chance of being trapped. So the threat of floods and the recent cold weather determined that they should be brought in.

When they were fed in the field it was usually Polly who picked on the others as she has placed herself second or third in the herd. She is a very strong but sensitive character and I think this and the recent move has led to her insecurities.

Stress would make the most sensible reason for her windsucking and it has also been suggested to me elsewhere that doing it releases endorphins, so it would make sense.

I have also seen somewhere that the action of windsucking produces more saliva, and as she does it after a feed I wonder if that would be a contributing factor. Janey did tell me that she wasn't being fed when she had her and I have gradually built her feed up so that she takes as long as the others to eat, although it is still not an excessive amount. I also make sure it is dampened down because it is just chop.

Jo ;)
 
Funny you should say that about after eating,I always joke that my mare(bought in March this year)has an 'after deinner suck' rather than an after dinner mint,as she too does this.Old owner says she was never kept in at all but do have my doubts about this,coat wasn't very hairy when I got her in March and tho' have heard it can happen,have never seen an outdoor horse suffer from this.
 
Anyone else heard this?

I have heard that when the horse windsucks it releases endorphins in the horses stomach or some place, making it "high"
 
Collars

Ponyvet or anyone - can you tell me what you don't like about cribbing collars? I'd never seen one until last summer - a horse at the barn where I worked wore one. I hated putting the thing on him - I was told it had to be worn very tight to be effective, and I always felt it must be really uncomfortable (plus I was always afraid he'd catch it on something). Is this why you don't like them, or is there another reason? Also, and this is probably a really stupid question, why is cribbing bad? I mean, other than the fact it wears down the teeth (and sometimes the fencing), does it lead to other health problems?

Kiwi - I've heard that, too - that cribbing causes a release of endorphins in the brain, giving them a little "head rush" :)
 
Lots of horse do bite and windsuck at the same time, using their teeth to grip onto an object whilst they suck air in.

nobody quite knows how horses feel about windsucking. some people think that they do it to relieve pressure on their stomachs after eating too much (like trying to make themselves burp??!!??). Some people say it's a sign of stress and some that it's a sign of boredom. I personally think it's something they start doing for any old reason but it becomes a habit, like a security thing and they do it whenever they feel like it!! I really don't know. I do have a friend who knows lots about stereotypic behaviours (vices) so I'll ask her next time I see her.

Crib biting is unpleasant for several resons:

1. People don't like it
2. It causes damage and wear on your fences, doors etc and that looks horrible
3. Unneccessary wear on the teeth is not a good thing and can actually cause the horse to have problems in grazing (or so I've been told).
4. Horses aren't really designed to eat little wooden splinters and I have heard of a horse which developed choke from swallowing a large nasty splinter.

Personally i think cribbing is more of a sign of stress than windsucking.

I don't know of any scientific evidence regarding any vices and endorphhin release, though maybe someone has researched it and I've not read about it!! (always possible)
 
it's also said to start up colic,
and makes them lose weight,
i have only known one horse that cribbed and she did it all the time practicually, she was 28 a thougrubred, she was a very poor doer so the cribbing properly didn't help, but she never had any problems other than this.
 
Theoretically it may cause a mild colic but there's no documented evidence, so???

I suppoe windsucking and cribbing are only as much of a problem as you want it to be!!
 
stressed?

Polly has been windsucking quite a bit but does it less and less each day as she settles.

When she first came in she would not leave the stable without her pair bond Autumn. Now I can put her in the other yard (she can still see Autumn) whilst I muck out and she'll happily eat her tea. We have also started leaving her in the paddock on her own or with Smartie after the others are brought in just to get her used to being on her own a little bit rather than being so dependant on Autumn.

I have lunged her a few times and she seems to be more settled in the back paddock than she was in the fields so I lunged her with her tack on on Sunday. She was being so responsive and really listening to me so I thought what the hell and got on! We had a few turns round the paddock just to get used to each other. She was quite tense at first but settled towards the end and her head dropped a bit. I had her in a John Patterson (the curved mouthpiece) french link eggbut snaffle and just an old straight cut show type saddle. It was wonderful to finally get on her and it was like we both sighed in relief as if to say is that it!!

It seems strange to say it but she has been a totally different horse since. Like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and she can just be herself now. I've hardly noticed her windsucking and I wonder if she was winding herself up about what was expected of her and now she now she has realised that life isn't so bad after all!!

So now the plan is to get working on her and get our confidence going and working together to bring her back to being the great show horse that she once was! I know we'll get marked down because of her scars but there's no reason why we shouldn't have fun anyway!!

Jo

PS I asked for a sample of Steady-Up from Feedmark and it has lasted nearly a week. I think this has helped although they say it takes longer to have effect but I'm definately going to keep her on it for a while.
 
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