Many horses kept in unnatural environments and subjected to the stress of performance careers resort to repetitive behaviors (called stereotypies) such as cribbing, weaving, or stall walking. The cribbing horse grabs a surface with his top incisors, arches his neck, opens his throat, and swallows air with a grunting sound and a backward pull of the head. This activity wears down the top incisors and develops unsightly muscles under the neck that can interfere with proper neck flexion when ridden. Serious cribbers might lose weight because they become so addicted to their habit they’d rather crib than eat. Once the habit starts, many horses keep cribbing even when turned out to pasture.

Most horse owners who have a cribber try various ways to halt this activity, such as covering stall surfaces with rounded metal edges (which are difficult to grab) or using shock collars or cribbing straps. With a shock collar you must be present to thwart the action, and this might only break the habit if a horse has just started to crib.

Straps

A cribbing strap or collar is a form of self-punishment. It is fastened around the throatlatch and adjusted to cause discomfort when the horse cribs–making it painful to contract the muscles that retract the larynx to suck in air. Many straps are fitted with a piece of metal or stiff leather under the throatlatch. When the horse arches his neck to suck in air, the strap tightens and the point of the metal or the stiff leather jabs into the skin. The pain makes him move his head forward and the larynx is not retracted