Mary Allen
Some horses love to nibble on stable doors, wooden beams, and other things that come in front of their mouths. This can not only be expensive for the owner but is often also an indication that the horse is not doing well.
Many horses like to eat wood. First of all, this is not worrying, because horses in the wild also regularly snack on bark and branches. “However, it happens again and again that horses in the stable or on the paddock nibble an excessive amount of wood and then sometimes cause considerable damage,” says veterinarian and behavioral doctor Ruth Herrmann. There is no general answer as to why horses rasp fences, partitions, and the like into shavings. “When looking for the cause, you always have to look at the individual case, often several factors come together.” A common reason: the horse does not get enough roughage and/or has too long breaks from eating. And since its entire organism is set up to spend up to 16 hours a day eating, it naturally tries to find a balance.
Cause number two: Boredom, for example, because there is a lack of exercise or social partners for playing and grooming. “Such a problem does not always have to be chronic,” says Herrmann. She still remembers that during a period of very bad weather, her open stable horses did not seem to know what to do with their energy. “They then dismantled a post together in one day,” reports the expert, who runs a practice for behavioral medicine. Another possible trigger is stress.
Sometimes one hears that the excessive hunger for wood could also be an indication of a nutrient deficiency. However, chewing wood cannot be assigned to a specific defect. A more detailed clarification by a veterinarian makes sense if other changes are visible or a horse does not seem completely fit.
Branches as Nibble Toys
According to the motto “prevention is better than cure”, one should ideally ensure that the horse does not develop an unhealthy appetite for the wooden beams in the stable in the first place. Because once the behavior has been established, it is often very difficult to stop it again, even if you then eliminate the possible causes and offer suitable alternatives.
Another problem: “When nibbling on wood, horses put on their incisors and then tear off a piece,” says Ruth Herrmann. This movement may be a precursor to biting, a behavioral disorder that involves opening the pharynx by tensing the lower throat muscles. “Many Kopper showed previously pronounced wood gnawing.” If the horse does not attack natural wood but rather impregnated or painted wood, this can also upset the stomach.
Preventive measures include species-appropriate husbandry with plenty of exercises, preferably in varied terrain, and good herd management. In addition, horses should be given plenty of high-quality hay, ideally served in a close-meshed hay net or a special hay rack, so that the feeding time is extended. To nibble and pass the time, you can regularly offer the horse fresh, non-sprayed, and non-toxic branches, including birch, beech, and fruit trees, as well as special nibbling or feeding toys. A varied training program is also good against boredom.
In particularly sensitive areas such as protruding edges at head height, the vet recommends protecting the wood with metal sheets that can be screwed on or stable, close-meshed grilles. In the best-case scenario, this not only avoids expensive and time-consuming renovation work, but also the fact that a small nibble turns into an unpleasant quirk. “But I also know of a stall where the partitions between the outlets are made of unpeeled tree trunks,” says Herrmann. “The barn owner has already factored in the gnawing and then simply replaces a trunk that has been gnawed away too much.”