How long do your horses sleep/not eat?

FlyingCircus

FlyingCircus

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Since living where I can see my horses, I've been interested to find they spend way more time than I thought just hanging out. They're either sleeping, dozing or just watching the world pass by.

I'm surprised! They are both very food driven natives in a 3 acre field with good grass cover and piles of hayledge. Yet they seem to both choose to just hang out for a good half + of the day.

How long do your horses typically eat Vs stand mooching?
 
That's interesting, I'd love to set up a camera to watch my two. Mine are in a large-ish paddock (about 2 acres) with really good cover (it was rested all summer) and they have ad-lib hay. I often go down and they're both just chilling with a rested foot.
 
Mine (and a previous herd) have a definite cycle - eat, move to loafing / dozing area for at least a few hours, eat, drink, move to loafing / dozing area.

I watch currently on camera, and with adlib haylage, would say eating less than 50% of the time.
 
Yes I’ve been surprised at this too since I’ve had them home and with cameras. They are free range with constant access to hay and spend a lot of time dozing. They rarely lay down to sleep through the day, usually between hours of 11pm to 6am are the times I catch them.

They eat for a while, then stand around dozing for up to an hour so at a guess, then back to eating. Rinse, repeat.
 
I think because most of the time at livery, they were either waiting at the gate for me (they could see me walking up the track) or they were eating still, I was expecting them to be head down eating most of the day!

Is interesting as depending on if this continues when the grass starts growing, it will likely influence if I choose to muzzle or not, as I usually would.
 
The short answer is no idea about how much time in total, but the long answer is the same as OP, i.e. more time than you expect!

I have two kept at home, both natives and while one is quite territorial over food, neither is overly greedy in that they will leave hay if they've had enough on the odd occasion they come in etc. They live out and have a handful of feed first thing while they're checked over. After this, 9 times out of 10 they both wander off and stand and snooze, if it's a warm day or there is a particular spot of sun one or both will lie down. Mare is nosy and likes to position herself where she can see through to the neighbours, and spends quite a lot of time generally surveying what is going on in her patch!

At weekends, if I'm pottering around doing jobs or am outside longer in the summer evenings, they'll both stand and keep a lazy eye on what I'm doing while mooching about and not really eating. Both use field shelters more in the summer than winter, and I don't put hay in for territorial reasons I mention above. So time in there is spent dozing, out of the heat and away from the flies. They can happily spend hours inside to the point I worry slightly I've lost them!

Last night when I went out in the rain after dark, one was in the middle of the field eating and the other was tucked in along the hedge line. She wasn't looking miserable, she'd got her ears pricked and 'happy face' on, if that doesn't sound ridiculous! But again not stuffing her face for the sake of it.

It's interesting what you say about when the grass starts growing @FlyingCircus, my littlest spends summer in a restricted paddock with hay (prison, as I call it!). It isn't completely bare but again I regularly observe him dozing, tail gently swishing, away from his hay box and not gorging himself. I suspect it may be different if I let him out onto 2 acres of spring grass, but in his smaller paddock he will still self-regulate.
 
I have camera's and often check them during the day. They do spend a lot more time than I realised dozing/snoozing/resting.

My lot have adlib hay and it's been interesting watching each of them learn to self regulate as they figure out the food supply doesn't disappear. Mine are all natives and I've not had to muzzle but I do rest and rotate my paddocks so have some control of their intake during the spring summer and early autumn.
 
FlyingCircus said:
Since living where I can see my horses, I've been interested to find they spend way more time than I thought just hanging out. They're either sleeping, dozing or just watching the world pass by.
I'm surprised! They are both very food driven natives in a 3 acre field with good grass cover and piles of hayledge. Yet they seem to both choose to just hang out for a good half + of the day.
How long do your horses typically eat Vs stand mooching?
Click to expand...

I moved my two to a very similar setup recently - 3.5 acres of hilly grazing, a rug only when it's *vile*, access to a nice dry barn with more or less ad lib hay. But they spend most of their time outside just mooching or messing around, dozing under their favourite tree, looking for nice bits of grass they might've missed.

My cob was on livery before - individual turnout, fertilised grass, limited hay so he didn't get massively fat. It was a lovely yard but a constant battle to keep him at a good weight! I really never thought he'd ever be able to live with ad lib hay. But now he's out with a buddy, lots of space, and more choices, he's self regulating in a completely sensible way and his weight is great. I left them this afternoon with piles of mediocre hay up to their knees and it was lovely knowing they'd be content.

(I will have to limit their grass in the spring - but that's cobs and natives for you isn't it)
 
94lunagem said:
It's interesting what you say about when the grass starts growing @FlyingCircus, my littlest spends summer in a restricted paddock with hay (prison, as I call it!). It isn't completely bare but again I regularly observe him dozing, tail gently swishing, away from his hay box and not gorging himself. I suspect it may be different if I let him out onto 2 acres of spring grass, but in his smaller paddock he will still self-regulate.
Click to expand...
That's encouraging. Fingers crossed mine will do the same....
 
My lot are in 2 herds and have adlib forage , the older ones x 4, one is a very good doer, same with the youngsters, one is a very good doer, they do not eat any more than the others it's just how they are.
I often go out and then chubby lady is just stood, snoozing, next to the others munching way
The older girls like a morning snooze, youngsters don't seem to have a set time, but they always disappear off down the field around 5pm
 
Our 3 Tb's are allquite different. One is very curoius, inquisitive lad, and spends a lot of time watching whats going on - not on high alert, just calmly observing, and will wander around to better vantage points on the hill for what ever has piqued his interest. I swear he just forgets to eat! The mare spends by far the most time eating. She will be methodically scoffing when the others are playing or dozing. The other lad likes to play or sleep most of the time.
 
FlyingCircus said:
I think because most of the time at livery, they were either waiting at the gate for me (they could see me walking up the track) or they were eating still, I was expecting them to be head down eating most of the day!

Is interesting as depending on if this continues when the grass starts growing, it will likely influence if I choose to muzzle or not, as I usually would.
Click to expand...
Mine similar, also feral groups if you get chance to observe them, and I think this is actually quite important to understand.
As soon as we start limiting access to grazing by using muzzles, strip grazing, track systems etc, etc, we are also teaching them to be constantly eating pretty much anything they can as soon as there’s any opportunity, and the ‘self regulation’ aspect goes out the window. When such horses subsequently go into fields - simply gorge - hardly come up for air!
Definitely not suggesting don’t limit access to rich grazing, which could make them incredibly ill or kill, but that successfully managing this is nowhere near as simple as often presented.
Extent and regularity of work is a huge factor affecting what horses do when they’re turned out, too.
 
Exasperated said:
Definitely not suggesting don’t limit access to rich grazing, which could make them incredibly ill or kill, but that successfully managing this is nowhere near as simple as often presented.
Click to expand...
I think access to the right type of grazing (large size, poor quality grass, ideally hilly) is incredibly hard to get, so most of us are fighting against circumstances when it comes to managing good doers. It's hard.
 
Not sure completely but putting my camera up soon so will know more then! But mine all seem to have a mid morning snooze when out 24/7 and an afternoon snooze when in at night and out in the day. They obviously lay down and sleep for a while too.
 
Mine and his buddies have a lie down around 10 or 11am and again during the night. They are out 24/7. If it's raining they don't lie down. When the rain stops they are all flat out and back to their usual routine. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we don't usually get days of rain so I've never had to bring in for him to sleep.
 
Another with them at home and more time when you expect. Some of that is they have no access to grass in winter so they're reliant on us throwing nets over and we just can't be there every hour/one of them is on a diet but even in summer there's periods where they just stand or have a little sleep.

I expect they also run out of hay by midnight or early hours most nights too and it's never hurt them.
 
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