How Do Horses Sleep? Learn Their Sleeping Habits

The mechanism consists of tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Working together in harmony, they allow animals to doze without collapsing. The process starts when knee caps in horses get displaced and lock hind legs in a standing position. Once the joints get secured, the horse can nap and relax its muscles.

As painful as it may sound, this causes no issues for horses. Plus, the apparatus will work in one hind limb only, while the front and the second rear leg remain relaxed. After some time, the horse will change its legs until fully rested. To many, an upright resting horse may seem as if it is leaning.

Equines will only lie flat when in a deep sleep. REM sleep typically happens several times at night. More so, a horse will only fall asleep while lying down when provided with comfortable and safe surroundings. Hence, it’s vital to arrange a dry shelter (a stall or shed) and allow your horse to stretch out peacefully.

Length Of Sleep

Healthy foals tend to sleep frequently because they are very active when awake. As a result, foals can spend half of the day to offset the energy lost. Hence, owners must provide space for their foals to lie down and rest for prolonged periods.

As for adult horses, they need far less sleep. They require two to five hours per day to get enough rest. Though most of this time will be in slow-wave dozing, horses also experience REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. For this type, equines must lie down.

The actual deep sleep will occur at night. Equines need at least 30 minutes and a maximum of three hours in 24 hours to meet their deep sleep needs. Besides, they must lie down for up to 45 minutes to fall into 20-minute REM sleep at a time.

Generally, sleep type and length depend on the workload, diet, temperature, and gender. Plus, the older the horse gets, the more often it will need to doze off to get refreshed.