For many decades, horses have developed habits that frustrate the people managing them. From cribbing to stall weaving to pawing, owners have swapped explanations, old wives’ tales, and supposed remedies for these behaviors, which are often lumped together in a category called “stable vices.”
Dr. Katherine Houpt, professor emeritus in behavior medicine at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, says that has a lot to do with the way we’ve traditionally thought about those habits. And that our way of thinking about them is wrong.