How to Stop Wood Chewing in Horses

Boredom

Horses kept in stalls or paddocks, secluded from other horses, or fed mostly concentrates without enough fodder to keep them chewing over a long period of time may become bored and chew fences for something to do.

Nutritional Deficiencies

Occasionally, vitamin deficiencies may cause a horse to develop pica—a taste for eating non-edible substances in an effort to alleviate the deficiency.1  This is not as common, but pica may indicate a serious underlying nutritional or hormonal problem.

Habit

Some horses may have learned to gnaw wood from stable or pasture mates. Like mischievous kids, they try what the other kids are trying, even if they would never have thought of it on their own—and the habit sticks. This is a bit of a trickier situation when it comes time to train the horse out of the wood-chewing behavior, because you may need to involve more than one horse in your efforts.

Cribbing

Horses that crib can be hard on wood (and other surfaces) too. However, this isn't truly wood chewing.

Cribbing formally referred to as aerophagia, is an obsessive-compulsive disorder (again, found only in domesticated horses), where the horse sinks its incisors into an upright object like a fence post, then pulls against the object while inhaling and arching its neck.2  The horse isn't really chewing on the wood since it doesn't break off or swallow any pieces; it's more like leaning on the surface in order to forcibly gulp air.

How to Stop Wood Chewing

Once your veterinarian has ruled out any medical or nutritional issues, you can start addressing the behavior that's causing your horse to chew wood.

Keep Your Horse Outdoors