Horse's movement - hiccup-like behaviour

Hi!

How lovely that you are paying such close attention to the behaviour of the horse you look after.

🥕It is a little tricky without seeing the horse in person, but from your description it sounds as though he could be gulping air, known as wind-sucking. This is a type of stereotypic behaviour that can develop when a horse is under stress, for example when it cannot carry out its natural behaviours, such as foraging or chewing for long enough each day.

🥕The behaviour can come on after a short or a long period of stress, and it can also disappear if the horse is given better conditions to express its natural behaviours.

🥕Some horses are more prone than others to developing stereotypic behaviours, even when they live the same way and have the same conditions.

🥕Sometimes behaviours like this fade, or are extinguished, when the horse no longer needs to compensate for stress in its daily life. They can also return, sometimes without us humans understanding why.

🥕The cause may not be the situation your horse lives in today. It could have started long ago and in a different setting. Certain triggers can also set the behaviour off, for your horse, for example, being tied up.

🥕Do have a chat with the people who own the horse and ask whether he has done this for a long time, or whether anything has changed in his life recently.

🥕If it is wind-sucking, it is not harmful, and you should not stop the pony from carrying out the behaviour.

Do ask again if there is anything you are wondering about 🦄