TO EDUCATE AND PREVENT A HORSE FROM CRIBBING.
Build a manger on the floor or from the floor up. In many cases this will prevent a horse from cribbing by getting his mouth below his chest.
Another method, sure to be effective, is to place a piece of sheep-skin of long wool, eight inches wide and about three feet long, or long enough to reach from one side of the stall to the other, and on the skin sprinkle cayenne pepper; take soft soap and rub it on any part of the stall where the horse will be likely to crib. If the above instructions are strictly adhered to, and the horse is fed regularly, three times a day, there will be little danger of his ever becoming a cribber. The slight trouble which this remedy involves will be repaid a hundred-fold by the satisfaction felt in the prevention or cure of a most disagreeable habit, and one which, like every other fault, lessens the value of a horse. In using the cayenne pepper, a small quantity will be sufficient.
There are more bad results accruing from cribbing than many are aware of. From cribbing the horse may become a crib-sucker, which often results in colic, or, as it is sometimes termed, belly-ache. When this occurs of course it becomes a dangerous habit, and no one should think it too much trouble to adopt the instructions given under this head. Do not think you can eradicate this habit by nailing tin or iron over the manger; you cannot remove it thus; your horse may desist for the time being, but when put into a stall that is not thus arranged, he will relapse into his old habit; but by adopting the remedy I have provided he will be thoroughly taught not to attempt to bite or gnaw the manger.
There is a wide difference between preventing a horse from doing what he still wishes to do, and taking from him the disposition to do wrong; the latter alone can properly be called education, and is the only way in which a bad habit can be permanently removed. On this principle I base my whole system; it is education, by appealing to the intelligence of the horse.