How do horses sleep: standing or lying down? Interesting Facts

“How do the horses sleep? – you just want to ask when you hear popular expression “sleeps like a fighting horse”. Is this animal really resting? exclusively standing and little? Let’s try to figure it out.

Standing or lying down: how does it happen recreation

This The issue is a subject of ongoing controversy. AND, as it turned out, all the arguing are right side. For in order to understand why, one must first remember that it is an animal is a herbivore. In other words, it is an object of constant hunting and, unfortunately, in the food chain takes the place of the victim.

А this means that vigilance is constant horse condition. If she loses vigilance, it will be eaten instantly. After all the predator does not hunt for certain hours. Therefore, the horse even sleeps like this, to be able at any time take off running. Of course, with such You don’t really care for the circumstances.

Helps rest standing some physiological feature – knee and elbow ligaments, as well as joints, as if snap into place. Muscles at the same time, by the way, relax. Thanks to this animal, having fallen asleep, does not fall. If a, for example, a person falls asleep standing, he, of course, it will immediately shatter.

INTERESTING: However, it is important to note that a standing horse can only doze a little.

Fully sleep in a standing position the horse can’t. Even with this feature like fixed joints. Of course, taking a nap is also good – it’s a little allows you to recharge, relax.

But full sleep is possible only in the supine state. А the horse lies down only when it feels secure. As a rule, this takes place in the company of brothers. If a watch the herd on vacation, you can notice that one of the horses is always on duty, guarding the peace of others.

It is worth note that without a full bed sleep animal becomes irritable, experiencing overload. And also physically gets tired faster, and morally feels discomfort. Therefore, in the pastures rainy weather without being able to lie down, the horse often feels not very good.

How horses sleep: a little more interesting facts

С figured out the position of the horse during sleep, but it would be useful to know some other interesting facts:

• Finding out how horses sleep, the question arises of what time these animals usually rest. As a rule, horses do not sleep at night. They most often rest either early in the morning or in the afternoon. However, they can sleep at any time of the day if they feel safe.
• Speaking of time. Unlike humans, a horse’s sleep does not last long. In general, she rests 4 hours a day. But even these 4 hours do not go in a row. Again, it is worth remembering that she is always on her guard. Therefore, nature has laid it down so that each sleep session lasts no more than half an hour.
• It is also important where exactly the animal rests. The place should be clean, dry and spacious. The horse needs to stretch out properly – only then will it have a good rest. Rest occurs when the horse is lying on its side. There are two phases of sleep, like in humans, fast and deep. The first occurs mainly when the horse lies on its side.
• Do horses dream? If you watch them carefully, you can see that the animals twitch their legs, their eyes move under the eyelids. So, most likely, the dreams of horses are visited.

There is questions about which we often even we do not think. And, thinking about it, surprise, we begin to sort out in the mind answer options. Just a horse’s dream belongs to this category. We hope that in this article we have fully disclosed this question.