Horse eating fencing

[Newbiehorseowner]

My mare has been on full livery since I bought her in June. It is mainly individual paddock turnout, occasionally with another horse, and stables at night.
She had no stable vices when I bought her but has just (in the last 2 weeks) started chewing, eating and swallowing the wooden rails of her paddock.
I’m worried this could become an ingrained habit.
Does anyone have any advice on how to stop it?

The best thing to do would be to turn her out as part of a herd. Horses are herd animals and should be kept as such. I would avoid anywhere that used individual turnout routinely. For injured horses - sure. For the occasional anti social one who really did prefer being alone - fine. But not the majority.
Fix the living arrangements more often than not solves the vice.

What most people sadly will do is put a line of electric tape round the paddock so she can't bite the rail. Which will solve the vice yes. But it won't fix the fact she's miserable.

One of the crib stop that you paint or spray on for the fence https://www.viovet.co.uk/Lincoln-Stop-Cribbing-for-Horses/c10106/
Look at diet, is she getting enough to eat? Is she short of something - add a balancer
Does she have company ?

The horses I’ve known who have done this have either been short of hay, got ulcers or have watched another horse do it and copied.

Yes I was going to suggest that it could be ulcers too. We had a pony that did this and he had ulcers.

I second the advice to move her to somewhere with herd turnout. She needs company and the opportunity to interact with other horses. It is really unfair to keep horses in small paddocks alone.

Horses turned out together will spend lots of time nose to tail chewing each others manes. A natural behaviour that promotes their bond. I suspect yours is replacing this behaviour with fence chewing. As it has recently started think about what has changed, which might be weather related. I assume you have a weight tape and check this each week so would immediately see if she started to lose weight?

I’m currently on a very steep learning curve :/
I’d originally planned for her to live as part of a herd but this didn’t work out (she kicked another causing injury in the first week and the yard owner decided she wouldn’t fit into the herd so we had to find somewhere else quickly).

I have a weight tape but haven’t been using it every week- I haven’t noticed any changes in how her rug or girth recently fit but will start this anyway.

There is little grazing in her paddock at the moment. Ulcers sound a nightmare- hard to diagnose, hard to treat?

She doesn’t seem to have bonded with the horses who have been tried in her current paddock yet she did in the original herd at the first yard - she seemed to get on really well with one mare in particular but then it all went wrong when she kicked another, so sad.

I will look for somewhere else in the Spring but also worry about moving her yet again and causing her more stress.

I’ve ordered some anti-cribbing solution.

Does she have enough hay at night? Also try Proxtexin acid ease. I have a mare who is on a restricted diet and she's been on it for 6 weeks and I can't believe the change in her.

Yes she has plenty of hay at night- still some left over in the morning.
Thanks for the tip re proxtexin- will look into that one

Just as an extra thought. Don't think of your horse is a nice weight they can't have ulcers. My horse was a little over weight if anything and on scoping had the worst ulcers the vet had seen for a while.

My boy does this. He doesn't have ulcers. He's in an individual paddock with a friend next door. If they are in together he will bully the other one. I put electric fencing alongside the wood fence.

Ulcers aren't difficult to diagnose. They can be easily scoped on the yard. Some vets offer scoping clinics where you take your horse to them & they scope for a reduced cost. Most insurance policies will cover the cost of the scope & initial treatment.

Most horses respond quickly to treatment with drugs like Omeprazole.

Ulcers cause so many problems. If the horse is suddenly kicking other horses after previously being fine in a herd then that could be due to discomfort from ulcers.

Chewing on fencing or stable doors is definitely a red flag for ulcers.