Stereotypical Horse Behaviour & Stable Vices

Horses are naturally herd animals and in the wild they would roam as a pack. Sometimes it is necessary for the domestic horse to be kept stabled either if they are in training for competitions or for rehabilitation of an injury. When kept stabled, particularly if they are not used to this type of management, it increases their stress levels. Some horses are able to cope well with being kept stabled; however approximately 15% of stabled horses develop stereotypical behaviours previously described as stable vices.

Examples of stereotypical behaviours are:

Weaving – shifting of their weight on their front legs from side to side whilst swaying their head in a rhythmical manner.

Box walking – tracing a route round and round the stable, generally in one direction.

Crib-biting – grabbing something such as the door or a fence in their teeth and gulping and swallowing air.

Windsucking – as with crib-biting but generally without grabbing anything they just make a large gulp and noise when swallowing air.

Aggressive behaviour – this can vary but generally includes biting or charging at either other horses or handlers.

There are no real substitutes for natural management; it is generally believed that horses display these behaviours as they are bored, in need of company and have excess energy. There are many products on the market that are aimed at helping horses with these problems. These include: stable mirrors, stable toys and licks, balls etc. There are other products which aim to prevent the horse from displaying these characteristics: weave bars or grills on stable doors, or creosote to prevent chewing.

It has been suggested that simply preventing this behaviour will make the horse much more stressed. However all of these behaviours cause health problems if allowed to continue for long periods. They will build muscles in the wrong places and can cause injury or strain to the musculoskeletal system and other problems.

Wherever possible it is advisable to make changes to the horse's management to try to alleviate these behaviours. Often just a short period of turnout will be a great help, also try to avoid leaving one horse in on their own for long periods, if you have another horse that doesn't mind being kept inside then this will help. Obviously in some cases this is not always possible for example when rehabilitating an injury however care must be taken to ensure that the behaviour doesn't cause further problems to the injury.

By: Tammy Patterson

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Tammy is a avid equine rider who wishes to promote the correct ways to be treating horses. Tammy works part time for a company who specialise in equine tack as well as horse rugs, funnell turn out rugs and mark todd saddlery in the UK. For more info, read our Equestrian articles