Cribbing or Chewing?

So, as perfect as Chloe is, we have discovered she has a problem.  She`s a chewer.  She chews on fence posts.

Her stall window.

On the posts in her stall.

I`ve even found her chewing or sucking on the metal bar above her stall door.  At first I thought it was cribbing, so we went to the store and bought her this crib collar (I have since realized that it is not on tight enough and had to make adjustments.)

But after talking to the store clerk there, I thought it might possibly not be cribbing.  Cribbing is when a horse grabs hold of a piece of wood or metal and sucks air in.  It gives them a natural high and is incurable.

However, I wasn`t entirely sure she was sucking or chewing.  It sounds more like she is simply chewing.  Chewing is just as bad as cribbing because it causes a lot of damage to your barn and pasture fences.  Not only that, a horse can accidentally swallow wood splinters which can lead to colic.  And Chloe just recently had a case of colic.  So figured she was chewing and not cribbing.  I believe chewing can be cured.  It is usually caused by boredom, dietary deficiency, or a bad habit.

It is also "contagious" as other horses will see the chewer and decide to try chewing even if the thought had never occurred to them before.  This happened with Chase.  He was never a chewer until we brought a pony to the farm that was a bad chewer and suddenly Chase was chewing.  We sold that pony and the chewing from Chase stopped.  With the arrival of Chloe however, we have started to notice he has started up again.  Mostly when he is confined in small areas. So we try to keep him in the large pasture 24/7.

With Chloe, however, we believe it is simply a bad habit.  We try and keep her also in the large pasture but she had that colic scare recently so she has spent more time in the stall then we would prefer.  However, even in the large pasture where there is plenty of room to roam and other horse's company, she will still find a fence post to chew away at.

So we are starting with the crib collar and seeing if it makes any difference and will be lining her stall with metal covering where the wood is exposed.  If she continues to chew on the metal, then we will coat them in some type of nasty tasting lotion.  Hopefully, we can nip this in the butt and save our beautiful stalls from destruction.