Chewing Manes

[Janice]

My horses are driving me crazy. Standing in the field chewing on each others manes. Anyone have a cure? I am trying Cayene Pepper.

[Missy]

That would drive me crazy too. It sounds funny, but put a pile of sticks, like willow branches and such in their pens. We had trouble with our horses being bad,( chewing on trees, each other,etc,) a few winters ago too. We had cleaned up our tree line and put the sticks in their pen to burn later, but they ATE them all that winter. The whole pile was gone by spring. They would stand there like it was a bale of hay, toss them around, chew on them, what ever suited them that day. They didnt wreck as many blankets that winter or chew on the living trees either.

[AJU]

That really sucks when horses start to chew. I remember going to a horse sale and standing there talking to the person selling a really nice colt and my husband said " What is the matter with this colt? " he said "he chews the tails off everything" it is something that is a big pain. Something that I can think of is are they lacking anything? Mineral and salt are two things that can help horses to stop chewing fences etc.

[Janice]

Thanks everyone, the only thing I can think of they are lacking is brains! It sure looks like learned behaviour much like cribbing..once one starts the others join in. Maybe in the horse world it is a game