| important social aspect of a horse’s life | |
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Just on of life's simple joys, that every horse enjoys... from foal'hood right thru to adult .................................................... |
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...mutual grooming |
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Horses living in the wild have a natural pecking order within their herd. Top horse is the stallion, closely followed by the Alpha mare and so it goes all the way down to the least dominant mare, who tends to get picked on by everyone.
Domestic horses sharing a paddock will often show herd-like behaviour...there’s usually one or two dominant horses who boss the others around. If there’s some choice grazing or feed going, the dominant ones will grab it first, chasing the others away.
Bonds are often formed within the herd between pairs of horses. Feral horses tend to bond with others who are roughly their age and dominance rank, while domestic horses will bond with whoever they are sharing a paddock with, once they get to know them.
One way horses strengthen their bonds is through mutual grooming, which is when two horses stand nose to tail and nibble each others’ backs. They always do this simultaneously, ie. two horses will always groom together at the same time, you rarely see one horse grooming with the other just standing there. If one horse stops grooming, then the other one does too. Horses spend time mutual grooming mostly with a couple of close mates, although all horses in a herd/sharing a paddock will mutual groom every horse in their herd at some time. The only exception to this is a wild herd, where stallions and foals don’t indulge in any mutual grooming. So why do horses do it? What purpose does it serve?
It’s actually an important social aspect of a horse’s life, it helps develop bonds and has also been observed as an ‘appeasement’ gesture after two horses have been involved in a bit of a dust-up. In other words, it helps reduce the tension. The
main areas nibbled are the withers and back, followed by the neck and
flanks. It was once believed it was done to remove parasites such as lice
from their paddock-mates, kind of similar to monkeys grooming their
friends (in fact, mutual grooming is quite common among many mammals). Also, the areas groomed are those not easily reached by the horse–how often have you had an itchy back that your arm just won’t stretch to? Rolling helps relieve some of the itch...mutual grooming is another way. Horses don’t indulge in mutual grooming with members outside their herd. Ditto paddock-mates...not until they get to know one another better than is. I once had a hack who shared his paddock with a clydesdale. We let the clydie go in the paddock, then watched in horror as the hack chased him relentlessly with flattened ears, nipping at his rump. However within a few weeks they were best friends who loved nothing more than to nibble each others’ back and withers. They had formed a friendship...and bonded.
Ever notice how horses like their ‘personal space’ (as do people!) and will warn others who who invade that by swishing their tail, flattening their ears and generally saying ‘nick off’ in horse-speak. Mutual grooming allows the bonds of friendship to be strengthened by permitting another horse to share his or her personal space in much the same way people will share a hug. It’s a way of saying ‘I like you enough to share my personal space’. An interesting aspect of mutual grooming was recently discovered when researchers studied horses’ heart rates as they were being groomed by people. They discovered that a horse’s heart rate would drop by around 12 percent when groomed in and around the same areas another horse would mutually groom (the back and withers) but the rate remained the same when groomed outside these areas.One theory for this is that there is major nerve tissue in these areas which is sensitive and just feels so darn nice when nibbled or brushed!
So mutual grooming not only feels good, it helps with relaxation, friendship and eases tension. Maybe if you feel your horse is a bit tense before a ride, spend some time brushing his withers and back and watch closely to see if helps relax him. If you sense he’s itchy in a particular area, give him a good scratch. If you’ve hit the spot, he’ll show his pleasure by moving his neck and often wobbling his upper lip similar to how dogs sometimes make automatic scratching movements with their hind legs when you scratch their bellies. Many horses have twigged if they swing their heads and nuzzle their itchy spots, they can train their humans to scratch that itch for them! Horses can contort themselves to nibble most itchy places on their body but as with human backs, there are just some annoying places they just can’t reach!
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