Last summer, before I met Zum, I had my heart set on adopting an Arabian mare. She was brown with a black mane and tail. She hadn’t been ridden in years as her owner could no longer ride her. The owner told me she was looking for a good home for the mare. I invited my girlfriend to meet the mare and my girlfriend noticed that the mare was cribbing. The mare was grabbing the metal fence with her teeth. We could hear the mare sucking air in through her open mouth as she pulled back on the fence, over and over. I researched cribbing later and discovered that cribbing is a sign of something wrong with the horse’s mental and physical environment. It is the horse’s way to cope with stress or the way the horse is handled. Confined horses that are not ridden often suffer from cribbing which can cause gastric ulcers. The owner decided to keep the mare after all. But I learned how important it is for every horse to be in an environment without stress. Every horse needs social contact with other horses or companion animals. Every horse needs to be exercised with the ability to move around. Every horse needs toys to play with like rubber balls. I fill a plastic jug full of rocks and hang it from the corral for Zum to toss around. And every horse needs a salt lick. I am so happy that Zum has my other horses to play with! He also has my miniature pony and miniature donkey. Zum adores them!
