Champing is most commonly described as a behavior suggesting submission or appeasement. | Photo: Photos.com

Q. Why do foals and young horses gum their mouths toward older horses?

A. This is a behavior I’ve always called “champing.” Many call it “snapping,” but it goes by a lot of names. The foal will lower and extend his head and neck and make gestures that look like open-mouth chewing, but the lips are pulled back and its jaw doesn’t completely close. There’s really only a lot of speculation as to why they do it and what might be the intended result, if any. It seems to occur when the foal is in an uncertain situation in relation to another, older horse, when we think the foal might be feeling apprehension. Broadly speaking, it might be a visual cue to others or a displacement behavior that primarily serves to soothe the foal itself.

Champing is most commonly described as a behavior suggesting submission or appeasement. That’s a good intuitive guess, because it’s usually a foal’s response to an older herd mate. Foals sometimes do it toward their own dams, and sometimes it’s directed toward humans, but that’s more common with bottle-raised foals. More often it’s toward a stallion, if there’s one in the group, or any other of the older horses with which the foal lives. Sometimes the foal champs during a sexual behavior encounter between his dam and a stallion