Does your horse get the sleep he needs?

Sleep is incredibly important to us. It helps us to recover from the days activities and gets us ready for the next day ahead.

But, do you know how important it is to our equine pals, and what their sleep patterns should be?

Now, horses sleep differently to us.

They rest in frequent short periods. Unlike us, where we tend to sleep consistently for a long period.

Their periods of sleep can be very brief. May be only lasting a few minutes at a time if they are standing up.

However, they still need REM (deep sleep) just like we do. But they must lie down to reach this state of deep sleep.

They only have to lie down for an hour or two each day to reach their minimum quota for REM sleep. But if a horse is never allowed to lie down it will become sleep deprived after a few days.

Adult horses only really need to sleep for about 3 hours out of a 24 hour period, although they can spend between 4–15 hours resting and in light sleep whilst standing.

Young and senior horses may may doze more frequently just the same as humans.

In order for horses to lie down and be able to get the quality REM sleep they need, they must be provided with somewhere comfortable to lie down, and feel relaxed in their environment.

Some horses will lie down in the day out in the field, whilst others may only lie down at night in the comfort of their stable. Charlie is certainly in the latter category there!

Charlie hates to be seen lying down, but I caught him unawares early one morning! Needless to say he wasn’t best pleased at being caught lying down and getting disturbed during his sweet dreams!

Horses tend not to lie down for long periods of time as it can be quite uncomfortalbe after a while and can put pressure on the internal organs.

So it is our job to make sure that we can provide a nice comfortable, dry and spacious area that our buddies can feel safe and secure so that they can lie down and get the quality rest they need.

If they live out then they may just need something like a field shelter so that they get get out of the weather and wet ground.

But if they’re fussy like my Charlie then they will require a nice thick straw bed!