How horses usually sleep
Many habits and habits of animals are incomprehensible to people, so it becomes interesting why it happens this way and not otherwise. For example, one of the most amazing and interesting facts that is interesting to many people: how horses sleep, lying or standing.
How horses sleep
The horse still sleeps while standing
The horse can most often be found exclusively in a standing position, hence the question of the position of the horse's body during sleep arises in people. It was noticed that during a nap, horses close their eyes and raise one hind leg. In such a stance, the animal practically does not react to anything, only sometimes moves its lips and ears.
Why does a horse sleep while standing? On the one hand, this is a typical position of the body during sleep for horses, however, in this way they tend to doze, but do not sleep soundly. Why is this happening? Everything is very simple. When the horse is upright, due to its unique knee joint structure, it distributes its entire mass across four legs and practically does not feel that it is standing.
The state when the horse has a slightly bent back arch, the head is slightly lowered, the tail is to the floor and the lower lip is slightly drooping indicates that the horse is half asleep.
Why do horses sleep while standing during the day? They just always want to be on the alert. It's embedded in their DNA. Horses are children of the steppe and wide fields, and since there are always enough predators there, even in a state of "sleep" they should be safe.
Security
How a horse sleeps, standing or lying down, depends on the situation, which he himself assesses. Much depends on its location. Being in an open area or in a room where she is uncomfortable, the filly will stand. All her instincts will be constantly on guard, suggesting at what moment to run and hide away from the danger that may appear in the wild at any second. The animal is able to get out of this state of half-sleep immediately.
If the horse slept on its side, then it would take him time to get up. In addition, in this position, the horse is in danger and can become an easy prey for a predator. An animal can sleep on its side only if it feels safe and knows that nothing threatens it. Most often this happens already in the stable.
Sleep on your side
To be able to understand exactly how a horse sleeps, you need to pay attention to a number of factors. Even with good sleep dynamics while standing, the horse needs sleep on its side. Sleep on its side is considered to be of the highest quality, and only in this position can a horse get a good sleep and rest. To do this, he must make sure that he is in a safe area. Only after the horse is completely sure that it is safe everywhere, he will lie on his side with a calm soul.
A sleeping horse on its side cannot achieve complete relaxation if it does not know that it is not in danger. If the horse does not sleep on its side for a long time, it threatens to become very tired and even exhausted.
Sleepy horses find it very difficult to navigate what is happening and escape from danger.That is why each animal should have its own safe place, where it will go to sleep every day or night. A sleeping horse can accidentally butt a person in a dream. When to sleep, day or night, it doesn't matter. A horse is an animal that doesn't care where and how to sleep. The main thing is that she can get enough sleep and get her daily sleep rate.
Sleep rate
According to experts, the timing of a horse's sleep is very different from that of a human. How the horse sleeps depends on how long it will rest. Horses sleep while standing or lying down depending on the level of fatigue and a sense of security. Even a couple of minutes is enough for the animal in the supine position to fully recover.
- If the animal is very tired, then the maximum time it can sleep is 3-4 hours. But when the horse is standing, he can doze for 15 to 20 hours, but even so, sometimes he is not able to fully make up for the lack of strength. An abruptly awakened horse can be aggressive, because it does not understand what is happening. That is why experts say that at least once every two days (maximum - three days), the animal should sleep lying down. This position is the most advantageous, since in this way the entire balance of the animal and its energy is replenished.
- An interesting fact is that a horse from a state of slumber can instantly regain consciousness and be on full alert, so even if the horse sleeps for 16 hours a day, the animal will come out of the slumber for 10 minutes every hour, which means that its sleep not so strong, which is very bad for a horse. The sleeping horse does not feel danger. A horse that does not get enough sleep and cannot regain the strength that was spent during the day becomes lethargic. The animal has constant malaise. And one day it may just fall off its feet and not get up. Sleeping steed is the easiest prey.
- In addition to the fact that they are constantly in danger, there is another reason why horses spend a small amount of time in a dream. Horses have a large body mass, but their bones are thin, which is why they cannot stay in the prone position for a long time. In addition, if the sleeping horse lies longer than 6 hours, it will lead to pulmonary edema. That is why the maximum time a stallion can spend lying down is four hours. Horses see dreams in the same way as people. If you ever see a sleeping horse, watch it. Her pupils will move back and forth, like a human, which indicates that at the moment the horse is watching his sleep. Everyone wants to rest after a hard day.
- Sometimes you can find horses running in a dream. It is at this moment that the animals' legs actively begin to move. What dreams a horse sees remains a big mystery.
If you have a horse, observe its behavior. If you notice that the horse never sleeps on its side and always sleeps while standing, this may indicate that he does not feel safe. In this case, it is important to try to change the conditions of his existence and find a reason that may cause anxiety in the horse in order to solve his problem. It is required to observe how horses rest, who moves how. For the sleeper, rest is the most important thing. Sleeping steed is rare.