Do horses living out lay down at night?

L

Laurac13

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 September 2015
Messages
619
Visit site
Hello lovely people
quick question do horses living out lay down when it’s dark?
I’m watching my retired boy like a hawk as he is retired due to neurological problems, he has always been one to like a lie down but the other evening he was doing this when it was dark, since he has been living out I’ve only seen him lay down in the mornings when it’s light ?
 
My younger one does, but the older one only lies down midmorning. They are in a group and there is always one or two standing guard. For the lions, you see ;)
 
Mine often have a kip at some point between 7-9am, another mid afternoon and I know they do overnight as I can see where they’ve laid. the morning one they often both lay down, at other times they take turns.
 
Thank your everyone I was just worried if it was normal or not so you have reassured me it’s nothing to worry about thank you x
 
I assume mine do judging by the pony shaped flat patches of grass, and grass stains on the old ones knees and poo stains on the young one because out of the whole field he just has to lie in a pile of poo every time. I quite often catch them lying down first thing in the morning as well.
 
Mine do. They are out overnight. I got them in at 5.30am last week. Were both lying down in the dark. Too dark for a photo. They also have a mid morning snooze in their stables.
 
Ours do. They have a field shelter but seem to prefer to camp out. The bottoms of their rugs are often damp first thing in the morning, and when I go out with my head torch to do a bedtime check I often see eyes glinting at ground level before they appear at the fence for their apples.
 
Mine tend to lie down mid morning, I expect nature tells them preditors will have made a kill and eaten by then,so its safe to lie down,they leave one standing on guard
 
Perfectly normal if they are happy and settled. My oldest one and youngest one lay down sleeping a lot, both overnight and during the day, possibly because they are the lowest ranking and haven’t got anyone to be responsible for.
 
So long as they down and have some proper sleep it doesn't matter when they do it. I think horse only need 40 mins of deep sleep per day but that's from memory and I could have the numbers wrong
 
My two lie down in the field at night, I can tell from their coats or rug, also from the marks on the ground.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top