Koper Equine

When we talk about cribbing, we usually talk about why horses do it.

Stress. Ulcers and gastrointestinal health. Management. Stereotypic behavior. Reward systems and the way cribbing may help some horses regulate how they feel.

But bodyworkers often notice something else.

Some cribbers are remarkably good at receiving bodywork. They settle into it, become deeply engaged with touch, and seem highly aware of changes occurring in their bodies.

At the same time, they may have spent months or years repeatedly performing a powerful physical action involving the teeth, jaw, throat, neck, and often the entire front of the body.

These two things are worth looking at together.

What has cribbing taught the horse about changing his own internal state? And what has performing that same physical action thousands upon thousands of times done to his body?

Cribbing Is a Physical Action

Watch a cribber closely. This is a substantial and highly repetitive movement.

The horse anchors his incisors on a fixed surface, recruits the jaw and throat, positions and contracts the neck, and often braces or pulls through the front of his body.

Then he repeats it. Again and again.

If a horse performed almost any other movement this frequently, we would consider that repetition when assessing his muscles, posture, and movement. Cribbing deserves the same consideration.

The jaw and muscles of mastication are obvious participants. The horse grips the surface with his incisors while structures associated with the jaw, tongue, and throat participate in the action.

Then look at the neck.

The characteristic cribbing movement repeatedly recruits the cervical musculature. The poll and upper cervical region, ventral neck, and muscles connecting the head, neck, sternum, and shoulder all deserve attention.

The hyoid and laryngeal region are also anatomically involved in the cribbing action. These are sensitive structures that call for appropriate, gentle work, but their involvement reminds us just how much is happening when a horse cribs.

Follow the Movement Into the Rest of the Body

The movement does not stop at the base of the neck.

A horse pulling or bracing against a cribbing surface has to stabilize his body. Watch the shoulders and forelimbs. Watch the base of the neck and thoracic sling. Watch what happens through the trunk as the horse pulls against the surface.

Repeated head and neck positioning also becomes part of the horse’s habitual muscular use. Over thousands of repetitions, that repeated loading becomes relevant to the rest of the body.

Every cribber will not develop the same pattern. The individual horse’s cribbing technique may tell us far more than simply knowing that he cribs.

Watch:

• How high is his preferred cribbing surface?
• How does he position his head and poll?
• How strongly does he contract or arch his neck?
• Does he pull backward?
• Does he brace through his forelimbs and shoulders?
• Does his weight shift backward?
• Does he repeatedly use exactly the same position?

You are watching a movement pattern that this horse has practiced an extraordinary number of times.

That is valuable information when you put your hands on him.

Why Are Some Cribbers So Good at Bodywork?

This is where the neurological side of cribbing becomes especially interesting.

Cribbing has been studied in relation to stress physiology, gastrointestinal health, dopamine and reward systems, and the endogenous opioid system—the body’s own endorphins and related opioid peptides.

This is where the familiar idea that cribbing “releases endorphins” comes from, but the physiology is more complex than the idea of a simple endorphin high.

What is particularly interesting is that an established stereotypy may function as a form of self-regulation.

Cribbing changes the horse’s sensory experience and physiological state, and once established, the behavior can become strongly maintained because it serves a function for the horse. This is also one reason simply preventing an established cribber from performing the behavior does not address the factors motivating it and may increase stress.

Now consider what happens during good bodywork.

Bodywork Provides a Different Sensory Experience

Bodywork provides another powerful source of sensory information.

Touch changes sensory input from the skin, fascia, muscles, and joints. Muscle tone and guarding may change. The nervous system receives a continuous stream of information about what is happening throughout the body, and comfortable, predictable touch can influence the horse’s physiological state.

Horses also learn to receive bodywork.

A horse that initially watches every movement of the therapist may gradually become increasingly skilled at participating in the experience. He recognizes what the touch predicts. He begins to anticipate familiar techniques and learns that he can soften and engage with the experience.

That makes the cribber particularly interesting.

A horse that has spent years performing a highly repetitive sensory-motor behavior associated with changes in his internal state has extensive experience with the relationship between physical action and how his body feels.

Bodywork offers a very different sensory route through which his internal experience may change.

This gives us a useful way to think about why some cribbers appear exceptionally receptive to bodywork without reducing the explanation to simply, “They like endorphins.”

Cribbing Gives the Bodyworker Two Important Pieces of Information

For the bodyworker, cribbing has both a neurological and a mechanical side.

On one side is a deeply established behavior associated with regulation, reward, sensory processing, learning, and internal state.

On the other is a highly repetitive physical action involving the jaw, throat, neck, and the structures used to brace and stabilize the body.

These two aspects occur in the same horse.

Years of cribbing may influence the tissues and movement patterns we encounter under our hands, while understanding the regulatory function of stereotypic behavior gives us another way to think about how that horse experiences and responds to bodywork.

Knowing that a horse cribs can therefore give us useful areas to observe and assess:

• The muscles of mastication and jaw region
• The poll and cervical musculature
• The ventral neck
• The base of the neck and shoulders
• The thoracic sling
• The topline
• Patterns of bracing, weight shifting, and postural stabilization

Most importantly, watch the horse crib.

The movement itself tells you what he repeatedly asks his body to do.

Then watch him during bodywork. Notice how he responds to touch, where he becomes engaged or guarded, how his body changes as he settles, and which forms of contact he appears to find most comfortable.

Understanding the Horse Under Our Hands

Cribbing involves behavior, learning, sensory processing, physiology, and an extraordinarily repetitive physical action. Looking at these pieces together gives us a more complete picture of the horse.

For the bodyworker, that means considering both what repeated cribbing may be asking of the horse’s tissues and what the behavior may tell us about the horse’s experience of his own internal state.

A cribber who becomes deeply absorbed in bodywork may be giving us useful information too.

Understanding both sides helps us look beyond the behavior itself and better understand the horse under our hands.