Don’t Let Your Horse Chew Wood

     Your horse can do some serious damage to the wooden areas of your barn and surrounding fences just by chewing on them.  This type of damage isn’t really the worst thing a horse can do but it should be stopped, simply because it could eventually turn into something serious.

     First consider your horse.  When it chews on wood it could damage its teeth or it could injure the inside of its mouth with splinters.  This could lead to it not wanting to accept the bit.  Your horse could also be chewing because it is lacking some nutrient in its diet.  Try giving it good hay and some mineral supplements.  You should try to keep it from eating a lot of wood chips because this could cause it to develop colic.  And finally, your horse could just be bored, so try giving it something else to keep its mind occupied.    

     Then consider the people using your barn.  Just imagine how bad you would feel if one day you let someone climb across a fence in the corral and a badly chewed fence board was so weak that it broke under their weight and the person took a bad fall.  Or maybe a chewed up stable door just would not latch right anymore and the horse pushed it open and got out.  This kind of stuff can happen just because you let a horse chew on something it wasn’t supposed to.  Fortunately there are things you can do to fix this problem.

     There are anti-chew remedies available on the market that you can buy.  Most of these are concoctions that you apply directly to the chewed wood to make it taste bad and repel the horses.  These do work and they are easy to use but they tend to fade away over time, so they must be reapplied. 

     The best solution is to put metal edging on anything that the horse might chew.  This is a permanent fix.  Use 1 inch angle iron or 1×2 inch channel iron to cover any exposed wooden edge.  You can buy this metal stock in almost any builder’s supply store.  It isn’t too expensive but it will take some work to install.  You will have to use a hack saw to cut it to fit.  You will have to drill holes in the metal where needed with an electric drill.  Then you will have to fasten it to the wood with either screws or nails.  Try to keep all the fastener heads as flat and smooth as possible so nothing gets caught on them.