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Motivation for cribbing by horses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

KA Houpt
KA Houpt*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Sciences, Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
*
email: kah3@cornell.edu
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Abstract

The motivation to crib was compared to the motivation to eat. Eight horses (Equus caballus) were operantly conditioned to push a switch for the opportunity to crib. When a progressive ratio was imposed, they worked as hard for a cribbing opportunity as for the opportunity to eat sweetened grain indicating a high demand. Another measure of motivation is the effort expended by the animal. The force exerted when a horse cribs was measured by attaching weights to a door and observing how heavy the weights had to be to prevent the horse from pulling a door toward itself when it cribbed. Seven horses were tested. Each neck flex of a crib-biting action was forceful enough to lift 29.4 (±5) kg. The motivation to crib and the force involved indicates that thwarting cribbing is a welfare issue.

Keywords

animal welfarecribcrib bitinghorseoperant conditioningstereotypic behaviour
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
© 2012 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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