My young horse has started chewing things is this temporary or a problem?

A young horse that chews wood, fencing, stall doors, or other objects is exhibiting a behavior that can be either a temporary phase related to his developmental stage or the beginning of a confirmed stable vice depending on how it is managed in the early stages. The distinction between those two outcomes is largely determined by what happens in the weeks and months after the chewing begins. The most common cause of wood chewing in young horses is boredom and insufficient forage. Horses evolved to spend the majority of their waking hours foraging, and a young horse confined in a stall with limited hay access and limited environmental stimulation will often redirect his foraging instinct toward whatever wood surfaces are available. This is not a behavioral pathology — it is a natural behavior expressing itself in an unnatural environment. Young horses are particularly prone to this because their need for oral stimulation has a genuine developmental component that adult horses largely outgrow regardless of management. Management changes address the forage-driven component most directly and most effectively. Providing forage as close to continuously as possible — through slow-feed hay nets, multiple hay feedings, or access to pasture — reduces the motivational drive for wood chewing by meeting the foraging need through an appropriate outlet. This single management change resolves or substantially reduces wood chewing in a significant proportion of young horses because it addresses the root cause rather than attempting to manage the behavior through deterrents. Turnout time plays a related role. A young horse that spends hours daily in a paddock or pasture — moving, grazing, and interacting with his environment — arrives at his stall time with behavioral needs substantially more met than one confined around the clock. The combination of adequate forage and adequate turnout removes the two primary drivers of wood chewing in young horses. If wood chewing continues despite adequate forage and turnout, or if it escalates to cribbing — the specific behavior of gripping a fixed surface with the teeth, arching the neck, and swallowing air — the situation changes significantly. Cribbing is a confirmed stable vice that once established becomes self-reinforcing and is genuinely difficult to eliminate. It is distinct from wood chewing in its mechanism and its prognosis, and a horse that has transitioned from chewing to cribbing requires specific management tools and veterinary guidance rather than simply the management improvements that address straightforward wood chewing.