After my horse eats he rubs his chin on the bucket, curves his neck and makes a burping sound. whats wrong?

Question

after every time he eats his grain in a bucket he curves his neck up, pushing his chin against the bucket rim and makes a burping sound? Is this similar to cribbing? Is he choking? Whats wrong?

Answer 1

it most definitely sounds like your horse is cribbing. you could get a cribbing collar, but i've found that they don't usually work, and i don't really think its a good technique since it chokes the horse to prevent them from cribbing.  i suggest getting a cribbing slolution ( by this i mean most horse stores will sell a liquid that tastes terrible to horses yet is horse safe) that will get him to stop cribbing. but cribbing is most often cause by boredom and sometimes lack of exercise. if you can, take him out more and ride him a little longer to make him too tirde to want to crib. or perhaps just turn him out right after he finishes eating. but most likely he will then find a nice piece of fence to crib on. you can always try getting a hanging apple treat ( the ones at look like an apple but are really salt blocks), or perhaps one of those bouncy ball horse toys thing to advert his boredom.

Answer 2

Your horse is cribbing/windsucking on the bucket. It's really a neurotic horse thing. They sometimes do it on a favorite wooden post or fence, but often on other things like your bucket too. That's why it's so hard to get them to stop it because they will usually find something else to do it on no matter what.... I've heard it gives them some kind of pleasure, so they can't stop but it's not really a good thing. It fills the horses tummy with air and often makes them prone to colic.

Hope that helps you. My last horse was a dedicated cribber/windsucker.