What do i do if my horse has ticks?

My horse has a flaking of the skin and scabs on the back of his knees on his front legs and also stomps his back feet when hes out in the field or in his stable. we are quite close to our blacksmith and i was just talking about the problem with him and he said that when he was doing his back feet he had 2 ticks crawling up his arm. i dont know if hes lying about this because why didn't he tell me when it happened. he only said it once i brought the issue up. i have had a look in his fur and i cant find any sign of them. he is a cob and his quite thick feathers so they could be rummaging around in there. if he does have ticks, what will get rid of them? i've heard frontline works quite well...?