What you are actually seeing
When a horse crib-bites, he takes hold of the top edge of the stable door with his incisors, arches his neck, pulls back against the fixed point and draws air into the top of his throat with a distinct grunt. It is deliberate and rhythmic, not random chewing, and horses settle into favourite spots — the door, a fence rail, the edge of a manger. The habit wears the front teeth unevenly over time and scores grooves into the wood he uses, which is often how owners first realise how long it has been going on and how much of his day it fills.
Why horses take it up
Crib-biting is a stereotypy, a repetitive behaviour linked to a routine that is not meeting the horse's needs somewhere. The strongest associations are with long hours stabled, limited forage, meals built around concentrates with long gaps of an empty stomach in between, and the frustration of watching other horses being fed or turned out first. Weaning stress is a common starting point in young horses, and once the behaviour is learned it becomes the horse's own pressure valve — he reaches for it at moments of anticipation or tension even after the original cause has improved. Discomfort in the stomach is part of the picture in some horses, which is why the whole pattern matters more than any single fix.
Changes that genuinely reduce it
Start with the routine rather than the door. Forage available for as much of the day and night as possible — small-holed nets if he is a good doer — keeps the stomach working and the mind occupied, and turnout with company answers the social frustration that stabled isolation creates. A cribber who shares a fence line or stable block with a calm companion often cribs less than one kept watching the yard alone. Look at when he cribs: if it clusters around feeding, feed him first or give hay before the concentrates arrive; if it follows work, a short graze in hand may take the edge off the anticipation. Protecting the door with a metal strip stops the damage to wood and teeth but does nothing for the urge itself, and anti-crib collars divide opinion — they block the neck action physically without touching the cause, so treat one as a last resort and watch his stress levels closely if it is used.
When to bring in your vet
Book a vet visit if the cribbing is new, suddenly worse, or accompanied by weight loss, a dull coat, a drop in performance or signs of discomfort after meals, because your vet will want to rule out stomach problems and check the front teeth for the uneven wear this habit causes. Bring notes of when it happens and what changed in his routine around the time it started — pattern is what turns a vague worry into a useful conversation. Keeping those notes where every handler can add to them is easy with Care Teams in KinsLe, where the people who feed, muck out and ride him can log cribbing episodes and routine changes against his profile instead of relying on memory.