When Horses Eat Non-Food Items, Part 2
As I mentioned in Part 1 of my article series on the subject of pica, horses have a natural tendency to graze. As a matter of fact, wild horses can graze up to 16 hours a day on a fertile open range. But when they start to eat non-food items, that’s where they can cause themselves a lot of digestive problems. And their owners a lot of grief (not to mention vet bills).
Today, I’ll take it a few steps further. I’ll tell you about another common non-food item horses try to eat, and what the best treatment for this chilling challenge might be.
A more dangerous form of pica is dirt eating. The equine intestinal tract is not designed to digest dirt, and if too much sand or dirt collects in it, it can cause sand impaction. Often, a horse that eats dirt and sand will stop or at least reduce the amount that they eat when provided with a salt or mineral block.
Yet another of the common non-food things that horses routinely eat their own tails and manes, or those of other horses. The best explanation anyone has ever come up with for this one is… boredom. Horses chew on things. Its what their mouths were designed to do. If their food doesn’t give them enough to chew on, they’ll chew on and ingest other things.
And since horses are naturally curious and do most of their exploring with their mouths, its not unusual for them to ingest foreign objects. Depending on the object, this could cause colic, blockages or irritation in the digestive tract. The best way to avoid this is by keeping the stable floor and pasture as free of foreign objects as possible.
Like All Horse Vices,
You Want To Avoid This
Ohio State University’s Extension Department brings up a point worth taking home:
“Oral” vices include eating non-food materials, tail or mane chewing, cribbing, and wind sucking. These vices seem to develop mostly in horses with no opportunity to graze. Some of these will resolve if the horse is given access to pasture, more hay, exercise, and companionship, but others will continue even then, having become a habit.
The “habit” is what you want to avoid. Once a horse starts eating non-food items, there’s a better-than-average chance he’ll keep doing it. Even if he’s full. Not good. Try like heck to dissuade him from his pica practices as soon as you see the habit developing.
As always, the best thing to do is make sure your horse has access to some fertile pastures, preferably with plenty of room for exercise. The idea here is if there’s more for your horse to do, the less bored he’ll be. And less boredom should result in fewer of these vices.
But if you’ve been reading my articles for very long, you I’m a big fan of stopping a problem before it starts. That’s why I say the best treatment for pica is a balanced diet high in roughage, give your horse plenty of pasture time with other horses and keep his pasture and stall picked up.
Yours For Better Horse Health,
Sierra Lynch
Tags: Horse Health
One of my mares attempted to eat her own hoof trimming. It was while we were trimming the other mare and we weren’t able to stop her. She first started playing with it. Had it in her teeth and was scraping the ground with it. Then when the farrier and I tried to catch her to retrieve the piece left in her mouth, she held onto it like a precious jewel.
I think young horses are just like other young animals ane are very oral when they begin life and especially when they’re cutting teeth. If they don’t have something provided for them that’s safe to play with in the way they need, they’ll find something and lots of time it’s something they may swallow and the pattern can start there.
So I always try to make sure my young ones have jolly balls, rubber feed tubs. traffic cones and old rubber boots to play with both inside and out. It encourages them to learn good healthy and safe ways to play and I find as they get older they still seek out those toys to play with even though they aren’t chewing them to death like they did when they were teething.
Hi, we are actually on clay ground but I received a phone call today from a friend of mine with an issue and was unable to respond knowledgeablly. My friend has very sandy soil and all horses are given sand clear monthly. Today - after being out on pasture all day -her horses were voluntarily eating sand. They are all a 5-6 on the body score and kept very well groomed, trimmed etc.. What could cause that?