Horse Laying in Field - sleeping?

[Scribbler]

Horses do need about 2 hours of REM sleep in 24 hours but it doesn’t have to be 2 hours consecutive, plus they can miss a day or two.

For REM they need to either be lying down sternal with their nose on the ground or else flat out.

If they can’t lie down at all to for many days due to bad footing or bad hocks or stifles, they can get wierd narcolepsy things happening.

At our barn the horses can all see each other in the runouts and they definitely sleep in shifts. My mare sleeps typically after her breakfast hay drops. If I drop by the barn at 11 pm several specific horses are always out cold flat but my mare is wide awake and ready to party. Other horses reliably sleep in the afternoon despite all the coming and going of people and horses.

If my mare is sleeping at an unusual time its generally because of some disruption to her day like there was loud construction work in the morning.

Her bright hello! look when I arrive even if she doesn’t jump to her feet is very different from her dramatic look of pure misery when she drops for colic.

[HenryisBlaisin]

My horse has scared everybody I’ve ever boarded with with his overdramatic naps, and several passersby too. He has always enjoyed his naps, and when he sleeps, it is flat out for as long as he feel like it. Preferably as close to the road as possible. Often he sticks one or both top legs out straight which makes him look like rigor mortis has set in. One day while I was at work, BO was outside when a lady pulled into the driveway and screamed at her about how he was dead or dying and why didn’t she DO SOMETHING?! BO explained he was taking a nap. Crazy Lady of course just KNEW that horses don’t lie down because they can–and only–sleep standing (apparently that’s what people get out of that factoid) and she KNOWS horses. Then she proceeds to climb through the fence (I was sorry she didn’t get zapped) and run up to him. Horse still not having this. When Crazy Lady started poking him, he gave her a seat glare, got to his feet and walked away. I was secretly sorry he didn’t kick her but glad he didn’t because she’d probably sue us.

If he has a round bale, he’ll lay right next to it, totally flat, but keep eating. :rolleyes:

BUT, this is normal for him, and has been. He’s super food-motivated, and if he was doing it at dinner time, I would definitely worry about colic (though a lot of the time it seems that lying down for a bit is just what they need to dislodge a gas bubble) or something else. We have one who sleeps outside during the day but the only time he lays down in his stall is if he’s not feeling well. Others I can tell that they slept at night because they are wearing their shavings, and that’s normal for them. It just comes down to knowing your horse’s habits.

IMO, you did exactly the right thing…noted behavior you hadn’t seen before and observed your horse carefully to make sure all was well. Sometimes they do things that don’t mean anything. But sometimes they mean something. You handled it just right.

[dani0303]

My now 26 year old has taken to deep sleeping in the hay pile in the pasture. I think his hearing isn’t as great as it used to be because I get nary an ear flick when I screamed his name panicking. Now I know it’s part of his routine mid/late morning and he gets rather grumpy when I disturb him.