We often punish horses for exhibiting undesirable stereotypic behaviors, but most of these behaviors are responses to suboptimal environments. Thus, punishing the horse for the behavior only increases the already heightened stress that caused the behavior. This is why so many cases do not respond to these treatments, explained Daniel Mills, BVSc, PhD, CBiol, MIBiol, ILTM, MRCVS, Professor of Behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom. He discussed various behaviors at the 2005 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention held Dec. 3-7 in Seattle, Wash.

"These efforts at control can reach quite remarkable levels of cruelty, but this almost always reflects the owner’s misunderstanding of the nature of the behavior rather than any ill intent on their part," said Mills. Instead, he recommended changing management strategies to remove the cause(s) of the behavior, or allowing the horse to continue the behavior in a safer manner (such as by providing rubber cribbing boards that don’t splinter or damage the horse’s teeth), rather than using punishing methods for control.

But to change the management or remove the cause of the behavior, first we must understand what caused the behavior and why. Mills reviewed scores of studies on stereotypic behaviors to shed light on general risk factors for weaving, box-walking, cribbing, wood-chewing, and headshaking