Common Stable Vices

Box Walking

Weaving

Crib Biting

Wind Sucking

Horses are not born with stable vices, it is man and domesticity which has brung about these problems, it is therefore important in the early years of a horses training, not to give a horse an excuse to find himself a vice. Horses can develop stable vices at anytime however. Most stable vices are caused through boredom and are extremely if not impossible in some cases to cure. Vices can also be learnt from other horses and copied.

In some cases vices are possible to cure. There are several different vices a horse can pick up on to entertain himself while he is bored and undoubtedly several more that are either rare or unique and have not been given a label as such yet, because we are not fully aware of the horses way of thinking. It is because of this reason horses need to be treated as an individual, they do not all develop the same vice for exactly the same reason. A general outline of the problem is boredom, but you need to get to know the individual horse to be able to treat the problem, this can take some time and patience. Observe when the horse demonstrates the vice most. Then ask yourself why. Does he do it more when he has not had enough exercise or when he has no food in his stable, or is he just lonely. There can be several answers, but you need to find the individual answer for each and every individual horse. It is then when you have found the answer you can then start to experiment with different ways of treating the problem.

Horses are not bad nor should they be given a bad name because of a stable vice. It is man that has inflicted these problems on horses. Therefore Man should take the time to learn the language of Equus.

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