Cribber.
Oh, you thought I meant something different. No, no, and to be honest, "cribber" is as much of a bad word as that one is anyway.
Her stall has taken the brunt of the abuse, since she gets turned out in a paddock with plastic flex fencing.
Lucy says, "Wood is a lot easier for me to chow down on than plastic fencing...DUH. Stupid humans."
Needless to say, my barn owner is not very impressed with her new habit. I knew I had to find a solution before she did too much damage, so I started doing research and asking around.
Someone said to me that they had used Irish Spring soap in the past and rubbed it on the wood where she has been chewing, then she will stop chewing it because horses apparently hate the taste of this particular soap. It was reiterated to me that it can't be Dove. It can't be CVS store brand. It must be Irish Spring.
So off to WalMart I went, and I purchased the Magical Anti-Cribbing Irish Spring Soap. I applied it as directed:
By the time I was finished applying it to all of the areas she has chewed on (and the few areas that haven't been chewed yet), I had used half a bar:
I brought Lucy in from her paddock and put her in her stall. She immediately noticed the half bar of soap sitting on top of her blankets on her door and of course was curious. She had a little taste and mulled it over for a minute, trying to decide if it was edible or not. I sat with a wild smile across my face waiting for her look of disgust, camera on and ready to capture her reaction:
"Mmm, that's a tasty treat!" she said to herself. She went back for more. My smile turned to a look of horror as my horse ATE the soap:
After a few bites and no sign of stopping, I just could not stand it anymore. I took the soap away. She was sad:
I am not kidding you when I say she took bites out of it:
Hahaha, my mare does that too. My trainer recommended I soap her stall with the Irish Spring and she came in from the pasture and LICKED it off the walls. Just fantastic... at least they have clean mouths right?
ReplyDeleteHaha! What a girl. Good luck with the cribbing. Izzy chewed the stall for a while. I had to paint the whole thing with this nasty anti chew stuff. I'm not sure what it is, but it smelled exactly like turpentine, which probably would have been 100x cheaper.
ReplyDeleteHi - I just found your blog via Kristen and Laz's blog - the living in the Cotswold comment sent me over. I grew up and lived in Pennsylvania my whole life but dreamed a Cotswold existence. Lucky you!
ReplyDeleteI have three OTTBs and our one Sovereign had started chewing and possibly the "c" word last winter. I had sheds built and turned them out 24/7 - the chewing stopped. These guys get bored easily and stall life can lead to cribbing.
Our new boy, Foggy, is skinny, not nearly as bad as your sweet Lucy was, but we are just now beginning the fattening program! Hay only did it for our other two boys so I hope it works again!
Oh Lucy! How can that taste good?! She looks great trotting thru that soft snow. Stay safe with the ice..we are supposed to get 12-18" of snow tonight. Boo.
ReplyDeleteOh my, sorry about the cribbing problem, but that story of her eating the soap is hilarious! Who would have thought that would actually taste good to her?
ReplyDeleteTo those of you who asked how that can taste good, I have no idea. But keep in mind she also thinks my cell phone and compact digicam are delicious, and has learned from her boyfriend/neighbour Gunner that wires are tasty also.
ReplyDeleteI think at this point we can say that she has an oral infatuation.
Juliette, welcome to the blog and thanks for the comment. I wish she could be turned out 24/7. I would kick her out there in a heartbeat, but there are no shelters in the paddocks at my barn and the paddocks themselves are very small, so that's not a possibility at the moment.