ABSTRACT
Because nearly everything we do with horses involves touching them, it is surprising how little attention the sense of touch receives and how much it is, sometimes inadvertently or unknowingly, abused. Unlike their sense of vision, horses’ sense of touch is very much like ours, although many people think that their pain threshold is lower than ours in general, which makes it even more important to treat them with consideration. The big difference is that the main way horses investigate objects is not by touching them with their fingers and hands, because they do not have any (although they may use their forefeet as part of the investigation process), but by using their muzzles.
