Does anyone else have a horse that relaxes so much while tied or grooming, that he’s a bit of a pain to wake up and walk out to the arena for a hack? He gets his REM sleep. He gets frequent chiro adjustments, acupuncture sessions, red light and massage therapy, his teeth are floated every 6 months (as recently as 2 weeks ago), his saddle is fit properly, (just reflocked last week), he’s not in pain; he’s just so relaxed that he gets sleepy. Once I get on and we get walking or if we start to head back to stall for his dinner, he wakes right back up. I’ve tried feeding him before riding (I throw his evening feed daily) and even just giving him is alfalfa rations while tied, but he chilled right back down while I was grooming him. Has anyone else experienced this with a member of their herd? If so, how did you manage it? At this point I’m wondering if it’s just a him thing and maybe he simply enjoys the evening routine that much 
If he’s resting in the pasture and there’s some type of stimuli does he struggle to perk up or does he pretty easily go from rest to alert? If he’s napping and his buddy trots off does he slog after him or immediately snap his head and follow? Is the behavior the same or different if you ride at a different time of day?
I had a mare like this and she actually had some pretty significant anxiety. Once she realized it was time to get groomed and ridden she would go into a deep meditative slow blinking state almost immediately. A lot of people commented on how relaxed she looked and how much she must be enjoying it but it was absolutely a stress response. If you can’t replicate the exact behavior grooming him in the field or hanging out at liberty I’d consider there may be at least some level of internalized stress.
Thank you for this insight! No, he does not struggle to go from relaxed to alert; neither in the pasture nor when in that relaxed/meditative state if he sees something that perks his attention or if a friend trots off. He’s v e r y food motivated and lives out 24/7 (with access to a nicely padded and clean stall whenever he likes), so it’s hard to recreate that state when grooming just in the pasture or in his stall. It seems to occur no matter the time of day, but he seems least affected in the mornings. He doesn’t go into that state for the farrier and he stands in the same wash rack as normal for those appointments.
Waaay back in the mid '90s, I was a barn manger at a dressage/eventing barn. The property owner had a Hanoverian gelding that would literally fall asleep in the cross ties while the owner was grooming and tacking up, and would even start to collapse before (usually) catching himself. IIRC, they did some testing, and finally decided that when turned out in the pasture (night or day, depending on the season), he was the herd boss and was hyper vigilant to the point of foregoing sleep to keep a watchful eye out. He didn’t really sleep in his stall, either. (as in, laying down, full-out REM sleep, but would doze standing periodically) For some reason, he simply felt super safe in the cross tie/wash stall and would doze off. 
And on a more personal note- I once kept my own horse Rush at a friend’s house for a while. Once when I trailered him off property, he kept trying to doze off and sleep, even to the point of wanting to lay down. My friend’s horse was the boss, and would usually pester Rush a lot, always keeping him moving. That’s when I realized the other horse was doing it so much, my guy wasn’t getting enough quality sleep. We separated the 2 of them, and he never had a tiredness issue again. So you might think your guy is getting enough quality sleep, but there may be something in his environment that’s preventing it?
Thank you for your insight! That’s actually really interesting about your own horse, Rush. There are 4 horses currently in my guy’s herd, and the long term boss is actually going to be leaving in about a month. My guy is lowest in the chain of command, and I have seen the boss pony and assistant boss pony pester him a good bit, so I do wonder if that might be part of the issue. I’m going to wait it out for another month or so and see if the boss pony moving to his new home will help the sleepiness. Thank you!
