Cribbing Rings: Cruel Or Effective?

There’s another alternative on the market, but is it right for you and your horse?

Most barn owners know the sound right away—a hurried, determined munching as a horse works his teeth along the boards in his stall or paddock. Some barn managers won’t board a horse who cribs, and some buyers won’t go look at one.
   
Cribbing is one of several “stable vices” that confined or frustrated horses sometimes acquire. These repetitive actions stimulate a release of endorphins in the body, giving the horse a sense of wellbeing.
   
Cribbing is a hard habit to break; the horse becomes addicted to the internal chemicals and periodically goes through these motions whenever he needs a “fix.” He grabs any available surface with his top incisors—pressing the teeth into the object (manger, fence rail, feeder, etc.) so he can arch his neck and gulp air in through his mouth.
   
This annoying habit damages stalls and fences and wears down the horse’s top incisors. Cribbing straps and collars thwart the neck position required for this action but are only a temporary solution; the horse immediately cribs again when the strap is removed, and the strap may rub the hair away, leaving a mark.
   
Surgery is more effective, removing portions of the neck muscles required for cribbing, but not always successful. Laser surgery to remove a portion of the nerves to those neck muscles is more successful, but many horsemen are reluctant to choose this expensive option.
   
Another alternative that is generating discussion among some horse owners is the temporary use of gum rings or cribbing rings, but this method isn’t a procedure to be undertaken lightly.
   
Chris Ray, DVM, of Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery in Weatherford, Texas, installs cribbing rings, using hog rings inserted through the gum tissue between the incisors.
   
Ray has done this procedure for five years, on about 50 horses. Hog nose rings are made of stiff wire about 2 millimeters thick and about an inch or so in diameter—somewhat triangular in shape. They are open before you install them and then squeezed together. The sharp ends can be easily put through the tissue (nose of a hog or the gums of a horse) when squeezing them together to create the complete loop.
   
“With the rings through the gum tissue, they stay in fairly well in a mature horse,” said Ray. “The rings may not stay in as well in a young horse because the teeth aren’t as long and the space between the teeth is different.”
   
To install a ring through the gum, Ray sedates the horse and uses topical anesthetic on the gum (holding a little anesthetic-soaked cotton against the gum for a moment before inserting the ring).
   
“It’s very fast—just a squeeze of the pliers to put the ring through the gum. Once you establish the hole, it doesn’t hurt the horse much; it’s quite like piercing your ears,” he said. “But if the ring does fall out, you can put another one in through the same hole. If a horse loses one, it’s much easier on the horse to put one right back in, while there’s still a callous around the hole.”
   
If the owner is not aware that a ring has pulled out, the hole heals up and a new one would have to be created to install a new ring. Some horses still try to crib or bite on objects with the rings in, which may bend or spread the rings, and they come apart and fall out.
   
“We usually put in three rings—one in the middle (between the central incisors) and one on each side [between the corner tooth and the lateral incisor],” said Ray. “The ones on the sides generally stay in better. Many horses will wallow out the middle ring but can’t get the side rings out, and these still inhibit cribbing. It all depends on the individual horse.”
   
He hasn’t had a horse continue to crib as long as the rings are in, but some horses make keeping the rings in difficult. “If a horse gets the rings out two or three times, then you might want to try putting a ring through the bone; it might stay in better,” he said.

A Different Procedure

Dr. Justin High, part owner of a six-person practice at Reata Equine Hospital in Weatherford, Texas, has been inserting rings into horses for two years and finds it usually works.