Tick Safer Horses: How To Do a Tick Check on Your Horse

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- Tick checks are just what they sound like: Routine checking of your horse for ticks.

Just like with people, tick checks are an important tick-borne disease prevention method.

Unlike people, however, horses are large animals with a lot of hair.

Tick checks are pretty straightforward, but there are a few steps to prepare and a few key points to consider to make these checks effective and safe.

Let's take a look at those.

Ideally, you should do a tick check daily, especially if your horse's pastured in or near tick-risky habitats like forested areas or tall grasses, or if you ride in these areas.

But even if your horse is not in these risky habitats, tick checks should be a part of your regular grooming routine.

There are five things you can do to prepare for a tick check.

Spring and fall can be muddy times of the year in the Northeast.

Muddy and dirty horses can make tick checks difficult because small clumps of dirt may be confused for a tick.

So the first thing you can do to prepare for a tick check is to make sure your horse is groomed.

You want to make sure you are checking throughout the year, not just the spring and summer.

Many disease-causing pathogens are transmitted by ticks that can be found on horses from the late winter and early spring to the late fall.

This may mean you have some fuzzy animals to check.

So the third way to help prepare for tick checks is to trim up that extra hair.

If your horse has grown long hair under the jaw or other areas where it may be difficult to check for ticks, it may be worth trimming up these areas with scissors or a pair of clippers.

The fourth way to prepare is to know your horse.

Some areas that need to be checked are areas that can be very sensitive on some horses, like between the back legs and the ears.

You may need to do some preparatory sessions with your horse to get them used to being touched in these areas.

Finally, secure your horse.

You'll need to have access to all areas of the horse, including under the tail and between the back legs.

Because you'll be inspecting sensitive areas, you want to make sure that your horse is secure to keep both of you safe.

That could be on crossties, in a wash rack, or tied in a stall.

When you do your tick check, you'll want to focus on the areas where ticks are most likely to be.

The ears, jaw, between the legs, front and back, and under and around the tail.

That being said, ticks can be anywhere, so you'll want to spend a little time on all parts of your horse's body.

To conduct a tick check, use light pressure and run your fingertips over your horse, like you can see here.

You may need slightly more or less pressure depending on the area you are checking and how much hair your horse has.

You'll need to go with and against the hair to feel down to the skin.

Start at the head and check the forelock, outside and inside the ears, the eyes, and under the jaw.

Investigate any lumps or bumps that you feel.

Using gloves is up to you.

You should brush out the mane and tail before the tick check.

You can use your hands and the brush to move the hair around and watch to see if the hair parts in any location which may indicate a tick is there feeding.

You'll want to use your fingers along the skin of the crest as well, as this is a common feeding location for many species of ticks.

Here you can see how I use my fingers to feel the skin at the base of the hair.

The elbows can be a ticklish area, so be careful here.

Pick up the foreleg and bring it slightly forward so you can feel in between the folds of the skin at the elbow area.

Continue to check down both sides of the leg.

You want to be careful approaching the area between the back legs.

Run your hand from their hindquarters down to the stifle so you aren't startling your horse.

Then you can run your hands down the inside of the leg and up to where the leg meets the abdomen.

Check all areas of the genitals or udder and then under the belly area.

You'll want to run your fingers under the tail from the top, all the way to the bottom.

Then, as with the mane, see if the hair parts in any abnormal way that may indicate a tick feeding.

Use your fingers to check the skin at the base of the hair, all the way down to the tailbone.

Under the tail, run your fingers alongside the anus and the genitals if you have a mare, and down the leg, paying close attention to those protected folds of skin.

A flashlight can be very helpful in these areas.

Overall, depending on the size of your horse and what you find, a tick check will take you anywhere from five to 10 minutes, which is far less time-consuming and costly than a vet visit.

Because there are no tick-borne disease vaccines or other reliable tick bite preventatives labeled for horses, tick checks are your first and best line of defense against ticks on your animals.