A scientific comparison between the effect of scratching and patting your horse.

A study has been recently carried out to investigate the physiological and behavioural reactions of a ridden horse being scratched or patted.

Being ridden is exciting for horses, and some more than others, become very excited or stressed while they are being ridden. Traditionally riders have patted their horses when riding in order to reassure them or soothe them.

In the recent study 18 horses were given 3 different treatments – nothing, patting or scratching. The horses were monitored for heart rate, heart rate variability and a variety of other factors.

The scratching produced a longer duration of relaxed type of behaviours than either of the other two.

Patting can be a quite invigorating for the horse and is often used to awaken your horse and encourage him, so that would be seem to agree with the results of this study.

So the next time you are riding your horse and he becomes excitable or stressed, try scratching on the withers rather than patting, and see if you get a better calming response.

And let us know!

Thorbergson ZW, e. (2016). Physiological and Behavioral Responses of Horses to Wither Scratching and Patting the Neck When Under Saddle. - PubMed - NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26958705/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].