Ticks on horses are a fast-growing problem across the UK, with cases climbing as warmer, wetter springs extend the active season and tick distribution pushes further north. The bites themselves cause local irritation, but the real concern is what ticks carry — Lyme disease, equine granulocytic anaplasmosis and equine babesiosis are all transmitted by the same species (Ixodes ricinus) that feeds on UK horses. This guide covers identification, the right way to remove a tick, where to look on your horse, the diseases to watch for, and a UK-specific seasonal prevention plan that actually works in pasture conditions.
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What Are Ticks and Where Do They Come From?
Ticks are not insects. They are eight-legged arachnids more closely related to spiders and mites, and they feed exclusively on the blood of mammals, birds and reptiles. The species responsible for the vast majority of cases on UK horses is Ixodes ricinus, commonly called the sheep tick or castor bean tick. It is the same species that feeds on deer, sheep, dogs and humans across the British Isles.
An Ixodes ricinus tick goes through four life stages over two to three years: egg, larva, nymph and adult. At each post-egg stage it needs a blood meal before it can develop further. The larvae and nymphs are tiny — pinhead and poppy-seed size respectively — and easy to miss. Adult females, once engorged, can swell to the size of a pea and are usually the stage owners notice first.
Ticks do not jump or fly. They climb to the tips of grass blades, bracken, gorse and low scrub, then wave their front legs in a behaviour called “questing”, waiting to latch onto a passing host. This is why long, rough grass and woodland edges are the highest-risk environments. Forest tracks, moorland, heath and any pasture grazed by deer are the classic UK hotspots — the New Forest, the South Downs, Exmoor, the North York Moors, the Scottish Highlands and any Forestry England woodland.
UK Tick Season: When Risk Peaks
UK ticks are active whenever conditions are mild and damp, which is most of the year. Two clear activity peaks are well documented in surveillance data from the UK Health Security Agency:
- March to June — the spring nymph peak, which is the highest-risk period of the year and the season most associated with disease transmission.
- August to October — a smaller secondary peak driven by the adult life stage and warm autumns.
Mild winters increasingly mean ticks remain active even in January and February, particularly in southern England and Wales. As a working rule, if the temperature is above 4 °C and the ground is not frozen, assume tick risk on at-risk pasture.
Where to Look on Your Horse
Ticks tend to attach where the skin is thinnest, the hair is shortest, and the host is least likely to dislodge them. A daily check during peak season takes two minutes and finds far more ticks than a weekly groom. Focus on:
- Inside the ears, including deep into the ear canal where it is dark and warm.
- Under the jaw and along the throatlatch.
- The chest between the front legs and along the brisket.
- The girth area, particularly in horses with feathered legs or thick winter coats.
- The belly midline.
- Inside the elbows and stifle folds.
- The udder or sheath area.
- Around the dock, perineum and pastern fetlock joints.
- The mane and base of the tail in long-coated breeds.
An attached tick feels like a small skin tag or a wart. Larvae and nymphs are easy to confuse with skin specks; adult engorged females often look like grey or olive jelly beans. Run your fingertips against the lay of the coat and feel for any small bump that was not there yesterday.
How to Remove a Tick from a Horse
The single biggest mistake owners make is trying to remove a tick the wrong way. Burning it with a match, smothering it with petroleum jelly, twisting it off with fingers or pulling it off with tweezers all increase the risk of leaving the mouthparts behind, of crushing the tick’s body, and of causing the tick to regurgitate its gut contents into the bite — which is precisely how disease is transmitted.
The recommended UK approach (echoed by veterinary labs such as Westgate Labs) is a tick-removal hook (an O’Tom Tick Twister is the most widely used and stocked in most equestrian retailers). The technique:
- Choose the size of hook that matches the tick — small for nymphs and unfed adults, large for engorged ticks.
- Slide the hook under the tick, sideways, so the tick sits in the V-shape of the tool.
- Lift the hook gently and rotate it — three full twists, in either direction. Do not pull.
- The tick releases its mouthparts naturally and lifts off cleanly.
- Drop the tick into a small jar with a few drops of surgical spirit. Do not crush it with bare hands.
- Clean the bite site with a saline solution or dilute chlorhexidine and check it daily for a week.
If you do not have a tick hook, fine-pointed tweezers used at the base of the tick (right against the skin) and lifted straight up are the next-best option. Never grab the body, never twist, and never use heat or chemicals.
Save the tick. If your horse develops any clinical signs in the following weeks, your vet may want to send the tick for species identification or pathogen testing.
Ticks in Horses’ Ears
Ear ticks deserve their own section because they are so often missed and so often the cause of head-shyness, ear-flicking and apparent behavioural problems (not to be confused with seasonal headshaking). The pinna and the ear canal are warm, dark, well-protected and rich in blood vessels — exactly what a tick is looking for. Ixodes ricinus attaches readily inside the ear, and a horse may carry several without the owner ever seeing them during routine grooming.
Signs of ear ticks include:
- Sudden head shyness or refusing the bridle.
- Repeated head-shaking, ear-flicking or rubbing the head against fence posts.
- A previously easy-to-clip horse becoming impossible around the ears (other causes of itchy, scabby skin are covered in our guide to mange in horses).
- Visible scabs at the ear margin, or dried blood inside the pinna.
Removing ear ticks safely usually needs a second pair of hands and a bright torch. If the tick is deep in the canal, do not push the hook in — call your vet. A short sedation makes the job safe and stress-free for the horse, and many vets will combine the visit with a check of the canal for any retained mouthparts or secondary infection.
Tick-Borne Diseases in the UK
The bite itself is rarely the problem. The diseases ticks transmit are. Three are clinically relevant in UK horses.
Equine Borreliosis (Lyme Disease)
Caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Clinical signs in horses are notoriously vague — shifting lameness, low-grade weight loss, poor performance, behaviour change, swollen joints, neurological signs in severe cases. Diagnosis is challenging because antibody testing in horses is far less reliable than in dogs or humans. Critically, there is no licensed Lyme vaccine for horses in the UK, so prevention rests entirely on avoiding bites and removing ticks promptly. The UK transmission window is generally considered to be 24–48 hours of attachment, which is why the daily check matters.
Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis
Caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum (see our full guide to equine anaplasmosis). Acute signs include high fever (often 40 °C+), lethargy, reluctance to move, distal limb oedema, depression and reduced appetite. Most cases respond well to oxytetracycline administered by the vet. Most UK cases occur in spring and autumn and are diagnosed by blood smear and PCR.
Equine Babesiosis (Piroplasmosis)
Caused by Theileria equi and Babesia caballi (the disease profile is covered in our equine piroplasmosis entry). The UK is officially free of equine piroplasmosis, but cases occasionally occur in imported horses and the risk grows as climate change extends tick range. Signs include fever, anaemia, jaundice and dark urine. Any horse returning from Europe with these signs warrants immediate veterinary attention and notification to APHA.
Treatment Options
“Treatment” for ticks really means two separate things — what to do once a horse already has ticks, and what to do if disease has been transmitted.
For active tick burden:
- Topical permethrin-based products licensed for horses (e.g. Switch Spot On, Deosect). These remain the only veterinary-licensed options for ticks on horses in the UK.
- Permethrin or cypermethrin sprays applied along the chest, belly, legs and around the ears. Reapply per the label, and avoid the eyes and mucous membranes.
- Daily manual checks and removal remain the most effective tool, especially for nymphs missed by topical sprays.
Ivermectin and moxidectin (the standard wormers) do not control attached ticks. Despite the question coming up frequently, they are not a tick treatment.
For suspected tick-borne disease, do not self-medicate. Call the vet. Antibiotics need to be the right class, given at the right dose, for long enough — typically four weeks of doxycycline or tetracycline for confirmed Lyme, with response monitored.
Preventing Ticks on Horses
A practical UK prevention strategy combines three elements: avoid the worst environments where possible, protect the horse chemically, and inspect daily.
- Time hacking around tick activity. Ticks quest most actively in mild damp conditions in the morning and evening. Hot midday sun reduces activity.
- Stay on cropped pasture and made tracks rather than pushing through long bracken or heather edges where possible.
- Apply a permethrin spot-on or spray before known exposure, particularly on the chest, belly, legs and behind the ears.
- Use fly-fringes and ear nets in the field — a closed mesh ear net reduces the chance of ear ticks attaching.
- Check daily through tick season, focusing on the high-risk areas listed above.
- Vaccinate the dog and yourself — owners and yard dogs are the other primary tick risk on most UK yards. Tuck trousers into socks and check yourself after handling fields.
Owners often ask how to get rid of ticks on horses naturally. Be realistic: there is no robust evidence that garlic supplements, cider vinegar or essential-oil sprays reliably repel ticks, and none are licensed for the job. They may have a mild deterrent effect at best. The genuinely effective “natural” controls are the non-chemical ones already listed — daily checking, prompt hook removal, short pasture and avoiding rough tick habitat.
Pasture and Yard Management
Tick numbers in any given field reflect the wildlife that uses it as much as the management. A few targeted yard practices reduce the standing tick population over time:
- Keep grass topped or grazed short — particularly along hedgerows, woodland edges and gateway areas.
- Maintain hedgerow and bracken control. Bracken in particular harbours tick populations and provides ideal humidity at the base.
- Manage deer access if at all possible. Deer are the primary maintenance host for adult ticks in the UK and a yard with through-traffic of roe or red deer will carry far higher tick burdens than one without.
- Rotate paddocks and rest grazing — letting fields go without livestock for several months can reduce tick density, though this is rarely realistic on small yards.
- Pick up dead leaf litter in the high-use areas around the yard, as ticks shelter in the leaf layer through dry spells.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kills ticks on horses?
The only veterinary-licensed options for tick control on horses in the UK are permethrin-based topical products such as Switch Spot On and Deosect. These kill ticks on contact and offer some residual protection. Daily manual checks and prompt removal with a tick hook remain the single most reliable strategy. Wormers such as ivermectin do not kill ticks.
How do you remove a tick from a horse safely?
Use a tick removal hook (O’Tom Tick Twister or similar). Slide the V-shape of the hook under the tick, lift gently and twist three full turns. The tick releases naturally without leaving its mouthparts behind. Never pull straight off, never burn or smother the tick, and never use bare fingers — these all increase the chance of disease transmission.
Can ticks make horses sick?
Yes. UK ticks transmit Lyme disease (equine borreliosis), equine granulocytic anaplasmosis, and rarely babesiosis in imported horses. Signs are often vague — shifting lameness, lethargy, fever, weight loss, behavioural change. Any horse showing these signs after tick exposure warrants a vet check.
When is tick season in the UK?
The main UK tick season runs from March to June, with a smaller secondary peak in August to October. Mild winters increasingly mean ticks are active year-round in southern England and Wales. As a rule, treat any temperature above 4 °C on unfrozen ground as tick risk on at-risk pasture.
Are tick-borne diseases reportable in the UK?
Equine piroplasmosis is a notifiable disease in the UK and any suspected case must be reported to APHA. Lyme disease and anaplasmosis are not notifiable but should be diagnosed and treated by a vet. The UK Health Security Agency runs a tick surveillance scheme to which both vets and owners can contribute.
How long does a tick stay attached to a horse?
Left undisturbed, a feeding tick stays attached for several days — typically three to seven, and an adult female can remain for up to 10 or 11 days before she is fully engorged and drops off. The longer a tick feeds, the higher the chance of disease transmission, with the key Lyme window generally put at 24 to 48 hours. That is exactly why a daily check through tick season, and prompt removal, matters so much.
