Do Horses Have A Good Sense Of Smell?

I was out tending the horses with my son the other day, and one of our horses was very interested in my back pockets.

I thought he was just being excited and boisterous for a while, until I finally checked my pocket and realized there was a couple of old mints in there.

I was amazed that he had been able to smell them at all, given there was only a couple of them.

So it got me wondering about how good a horse’s sense of smell is.

So, do horses have a good sense of smell?

A horse’s sense of smell is more acute than our own, which is already quite good, relatively speaking. They are not as good sniffers as dogs, but they can use their sense of smell to identify other horses that they know, people that they know, and sometimes even detect predators.

So, by any general standards, horses have a really good sense of smell.

They can’t claim the same greatness as bloodhounds, but they are nonetheless very sensitive to the smells that serve them.

So, yes, horses have a good sense of smell unless you compare them with dogs.

Let’s look at this in more detail.

Can horses smell their owners?

Yes, they certainly can.

Horses, as complex social creatures who spend their lives surrounded by other members of their species, need to be able to tell them apart.

That ability, naturally, extends to their human owners, too.

They will see you as a friend if not a member of the herd itself.

Your smells will be harder for them to interpret, since their noses will be more attuned to other horses.

Nonetheless, they will come to know you by your smells, and may even smell you coming before you arrive.

The sight of a horse can only take it so far in this way—sight is really a threat detection device for horses, rather than a way of identifying others.

Obviously, they will be able to pick up on visual cues and details, but they will get to know each you via smells, primarily.

So, your horse can definitely smell you, and it will use this sensory data, in part, to build a picture of you.

What about the other horses it knows, then?

Can horses smell other horses?

Yes, horses can certainly smell other horses.

Again, this data is one of the main ways they build up a picture of individual companions.

There is only so far that their vision can take them in this regard, again; certainly, they will have a visual image of horses they know, but this is only part of the picture.

Horses, as you will know if you own any, give off a good, strong smell.

This is one of many ways of communicating with each other.

So, not only do horses smell and know other horses, but they use their own scent to convey their own communications.

So, yes, horses can definitely smell other horses—although they are not as sensitive to, say, another rival herd of horses.

They mainly smell their companions.

Can horses smell food?

Again, if you’ve ever had food near a horse as I had that mint in my pocket, you will know the answer to this.

Horses can certainly smell food, although, again, they are not all that sensitive to it.

In the wild, and indeed domestically, most of what they eat is just grazing.

Grass, hay—mostly odourless substances that are easy to find anywhere and everywhere.

So, smell isn’t really the most important part of their sensory apparatus when it comes to food.

They really just need to be able to see the good grass.

Are there any smells that they don’t like, then?

What scent do horses hate?

Horses are in general pretty tolerant when it comes to bad smells.

There’s very little that they would actively ‘hate’, if we could even ask them.

We can only observe their behavior, and there really isn’t anything which horses seem to universally dislike.

Many have reported that their horses hat the flavor of bute—although this is not completely universal, and it is also not a smell.

In any case, there does not seem to be any universal odor which all horses, without exception, hate.

Your own horse may have its own dislikes, though!

Horses have sensitive noses that you need to be aware of, then. they will smell food on you and if it’s something they want, they will try and grab it.

Sense of smell in big animals like horses can often not be enough to get a good sense of their surroundings, and as prey animals, they need to have pretty good vision.

Senses need to be traded off to a certain degree, as you can’t have all your senses incredibly well attuned—this would simply be too much for the brain.

A horse’s sense of smell is as good as it needs to be.