Stable Vices - Solutions

Solutions

In most cases, reducing confinement and providing the animal a more natural setting reduces the incidence of stable vices.

There are stopgap "cures" that can be provided in the stall to keep a horse busy or out of trouble, including increased exercise, feeding of larger quantities of lower-quality food (so the animal spends more time eating and less time being bored), feeding more frequently, or cutting back on grain or other high-energy concentrates. Toys such as a ball or empty one-gallon plastic milk jug can be hung in the stall. Sometimes simply giving the animal a companion in the next stall, or even a smaller animal placed in the same stall, also helps a bored or nervous horse.

In extreme cases, a short term fix may include tying up the horse in its stall, putting on a "cribbing strap" (which prevents sucking in air), putting on a muzzle, or hobbling its feet. However, none of these practices solve the underlying problem, may raise animal welfare concerns, and the animal will resume its behavior as soon as the restraint is removed. The only long-term solution is to give the horse less time in the stall and, preferably, more free turnout time.