Cribbing is very common among horses which have been long inhabitants of the stable; the many hours of stagnation the domesticated horse is doomed to pass, may induce the animal readily to seize upon any solitary pastime. Or the perpetual consumption of oats and hay may disarrange the digestion, which, experience teaches, is in ourselves much benefited by a moderate change of diet. Or, the constant inhalation of close and impure air, such as will taint the clothes of the groom, who is much exposed to it, may disorder that part of the body which is the most sympathetic of the entire frame.
Adopt which of these theories the reader may be inclined to, all of them can be brought to bear upon the horse so affected. That cribbing is a habit is seemingly proved by the young horse, stalled next to an old cribber, soon acquiring the custom. That cribbing is provoked by idleness, appears to be in some measure confirmed by the horse never exhibiting the peculiarity before it has been handled and become an occupant of the stable. That it arises from acrimony, induced by the food, is apparently shown by the colt, while at grass, never displaying the symptom. That it will be witnessed in the old horse, when turned out for a month's run at grass, establishes nothing. The temporary visitor to the field may often be seen galloping toward some gate, which, having reached, the horse there commences a long game at crib-biting. This circumstance can settle nothing, except that the digestion is chronically deranged—the stomach, when thus affected, being peculiarly retentive of its morbid condition.
Crib-biting consists in resting the upper incisor teeth against any solid or firm substance; a fixed point is thus gained, and, after much effort, a small portion of gas is eructated. The perpetual emissions of heated air is, in man, one of the symptoms attendant on indigestion; and the act, in the horse, appears to be impelled by something stronger than habit; since the animal will leave the most tempting provender for its indulgence.
A HORSE IN THE ACT OF CRIB-BITING.
The premonitory symptoms, moreover, seem to declare heartburn to be the cause of this much-dreaded indulgence. The custom is always preceded by licking of the manger. If on that there should be iron, or should any part be cooler than the rest, to that particular spot attention will be paid. The licking of cold substances is a symptom of disordered stomach with other dumb creatures. It is prominently displayed by the dog when the viscus is inflamed. But crib-biting may be prevented, if attacked during the premonitory stage. Any substance, which acts as a stimulant to the stomach, is said to be beneficial. Salt is known as an almost necessary condiment, aiding the healthfulness of human food. The deprivation of salt was an old criminal punishment among the Dutch; and a lump of rock-salt placed in the manger will often enable the horse's digestion to recover its lost tone.
Crib-biting has, in submission to general opinion, been alluded to as a habit, learned within the stable. But may not that which man designates a habit in a dumb creature, be no more than the influence of one atmosphere acting similarly on two bodies, both caged in the same stable? The air is much more than inhaled. A large quantity is swallowed with the saliva. No slight amount is deglutated with the masticated food. The water is generally kept in the stable some hours before the horses are permitted to imbibe it. Water has a large affinity for atmosphere. Air, therefore, enters largely into the body, besides being continually absorbed by the blood during respiration. And moreover, is it not strange that all horses, when indulging an imitative faculty, should always precede the display by the same licking of the manger, which assuredly is not learned, because that stage has passed before the young horse is placed near the one it is supposed to imitate? Is it not also surprising, that applying the tongue to cool substances should, in other domesticated but dumb creatures, be a symptom of derangement of the stomach?
When the horse cribs, the manger is not bitten. The upper incisors are merely placed against the wood-work, and, from this fixed point, the animal strains backward the body; thereby, the muscles of the neck are the more readily excited, and a small portion of air, accompanied by a slight sound, is forced up a canal which does not of itself favor regurgitation. When the inability to vomit is considered, the necessity of some such stratagem, to relieve the stomach of its burning acidity, must at once be admitted. We are still further reconciled to the necessity which prompts the action, when the ease afforded to human dyspeptic subjects, by the expulsion of "the wind," is properly regarded.
To relieve crib-biting, first attend to the atmosphere of the stables; render that pure by ample ventilation. Place a lump of rock-salt in the manger; should that not effect a cure, add to it a large piece of chalk; should these be unavailing, always damp the food, and, at each time of feeding, sprinkle magnesia upon it, and mingle a large handful of ground oak-bark with each feed of corn. Should none of these measures prove beneficial, treat the case as one of chronic indigestion or gastritis.
Let every reader, however, remember dyspepsia is far easier acquired than eradicated or even relieved; still, the vast majority of the fears entertained concerning crib-biting are perfectly groundless. The habit, certainly, does not round the edges of the front teeth; neither does it predispose to spasm or to flatulent colic; a horse that cribs may have either diseases; so, also, do many animals which are free from the peculiarity. Cribbing can be no recommendation to a purchaser, although the writer cannot honestly point to the direction in which it is detrimental to the usefulness. The late Mr. Sewell had a brown horse: this creature was eighteen years old, and an inveterate cribber; yet, it would trot nine miles an hour, for its own pace, without ever needing the whip. More than this, no horse master should require; but let those who entertain a horror of crib-biting, pay extra attention to the means by which the indulgence can be prevented.