Sensory hairs

What are horse whiskers?

Horses have special tactile sensory hairs, known as whiskers. The whiskers on a horse play an important role in their sensory awareness system. These amazing hairs have their own nerve and blood supply and help horses navigate their surroundings.

Whisker follicles are deeper and larger than other hair follicles, with a richer blood supply and a connection to far more nerves than regular hairs. This helps make whiskers incredibly sensitive to touch, even if it's something as subtle as air movements. 

Location and purpose of whiskers

Sensory hairs are located around the mouth, nose, eyes and inner ears of horses. Whiskers provide sensory feedback to the horse on their surroundings. The length of the whiskers determines the safe distance from objects, compensating for the blind spots a horse has in front of its face and underneath its nose². Many times, the only information a horse receives about what is happening in these areas is provided through its whiskers. They also allow the horse to understand unfamiliar characteristics of food or detect small inedible objects³. 

Due to the whiskers having a good nerve supply, one study has even suggested that horses may be capable of picking up vibrational energy through their whiskers, which might help them detect sound frequencies, or feel the energy in an electric fence without touching it¹. 

The whiskers on the upper and lower eyelids provide an automatic blink response when they encounter something like a fly or contact with an object, which helps protect the eye.

Inner ear hair

Hairs within the inner ear also play an important role in the horse’s sensory system by providing feedback from their environment and by protecting the delicate structures.

The outer ear hair (more fluffy hair) encloses the inner hair, acting as a protective barrier to the sensitive inner ear skin from bugs, sun and foreign objects.

Trimming sensory hairs

Care should be taken not to excessively trim the outer ear hair to make sure there’s enough protection for the delicate inner ear structure. By gently holding the ear closed when trimming the outer hair, you’ll help reduce the risk of taking off too much. 

For many years it’s been general practice to remove the horse’s sensory hairs for cosmetic purposes. Traditionally, horses that are shown competitively with untrimmed or unclipped whiskers might be considered by some to be poorly turned out.   
 
In Germany and Belgium, the practice of whisker removal has been banned for many years, due to welfare concerns. Many governing bodies, across lots of disciplines in the UK, have now also banned the practice. The BHS agrees and advises that sensory hairs located around the mouth, nose, eyes and inner ears are an important sensory organ for the horse and should not be removed for cosmetic purposes.