Dead Horse?

No, just sleeping, and soaking up the california sun. We have had a few horses, and two burros since the kids were little. I can't remember seeing either sleep like this. When I first saw this I thought a vet will be on the way soon. Is it normal for a horse to lay flat out? This is the grand daughters horse. Stan

I've seen my horses do that for a short time occasionally, unless there's something wrong with it, its prolly just relaxing, most of the time, the little bit mine lay down there laying but there sitting up, legs under them, if that makes any sense.

Chief,

I have a 10 year old gelding that does that fairly frequently. I, too, thought he was dead the first time I saw him do it, but I've seen him do it many times since then. He's asleep. I've actually had a bit of time awakening him when I've done so.

Tom in TN

Sleep patterns

Horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. They are able to doze and enter light sleep while standing, an adaptation from life as a prey animal in the wild. Lying down makes an animal more vulnerable to predators. Horses are able to sleep standing up because a "stay apparatus" in their legs allows them to relax their muscles and doze without collapsing. In the front legs, their equine forelimb anatomy automatically engages the stay apparatus when their muscles relax. The horse engages the stay apparatus in the hind legs by shifting its hip position to lock the patella in place. At the stifle joint, a "hook" structure situated on the inside bottom end of the femur cups the patella and the medial patella ligament, preventing the leg from bending.

Horses do not need a solid, unbroken period of sleep time. They obtain needed sleep by means of many short periods of rest. This is to be expected of a prey animal, one that needs to be ready on a moment's notice to flee from predators. Horses may spend anywhere from four to fifteen hours a day in standing rest, and from a few minutes to several hours lying down. However, not all this time is the horse actually asleep; total sleep time in a day may range from several minutes to a couple of hours. Horses require approximately two and a half hours of sleep, on average, in a 24-hour period. Most of this sleep occurs in many short intervals of about 15 minutes each.

Horses need to lie down occasionally, and prefer soft ground for a nap.
Horses must lie down to reach REM sleep. They only have to lie down for an hour or two every few days to meet their minimum REM sleep requirements. However, if a horse is never allowed to lie down, after several days it will become sleep-deprived, and in rare cases may suddenly collapse as it involuntarily slips into REM sleep while still standing. This condition differs from narcolepsy, though horses may also suffer from that disorder.

Horses sleep better when in groups because some animals will sleep while others stand guard to watch for predators. A horse kept entirely alone may not sleep well because its instincts are to keep a constant eye out for danger.

....James

Had a mini horse lay out and sun on the first warm sunny day last spring. He stayed there long enough (hour or more)for someone to call animal control on us over a dead horse. Had to fast talk that one. Once animal control here gets called, they look you over completely.

Had a little calf that looked like that today.

i have seen baby pigs do that you can do almost anything to them but if one should squeal watch out mamas gonna get you

I dont know but i think your horse will be fine :shock: :shock: :shock:
Im been doing that a LOT lately... :wink: :wink: :wink:

As jwal10 said. Ours lay down often even during the winter long as the sun is out. Sometimes when thier standing up sleeping you can see thier heads drooping down then they lift it just like someone sleeping sitting up.
While it was still cold today (+10 degrees) 2 of ours were stretched out just like yours soaking the sun up while the others were standing around
Have seen as many as 7 of the 12 laying out sleeping.
Last spring one of them laid down and we just called the backhoe, nothing a vet could do for him. He was around 35.

I have eleven mini horses and they all will lay like that often when the sun is out year around. They do look dead. If the wind is blowing in the winter they don't. They will get out of the wind and sleep standing up. My horses will be sleeping standing up sometimes and I call their name loud several times then all of a sudden they will jerk their head and look to find where you are then start to move.

Thanks for the post. I have a farm full of horses but I learned from your post. Explains some of what I have observed here on the farm.

One day the door bell rang and a woman was at my door, distressed that one of my horses, was laying out in the field dying and needed a vet badly, and I wasn't paying attention. Well the horse was laid out sleeping just like the photo. I walked out in the field, so the lady could see me, and as I got near the horse it got up and ambled away.

Don"t want to steal your post, but that reminds me of a story told by a VDOT employee several years ago. People often call in to the local VDOT office requesting road kills be removed. Well one day a report came in that a dog was lying dead on the road and should be removed. He dutifully approached the dog, whereupon the dog got up, stretched and ambled off. The employee went back to the office and told his supervisor that he couldn"t catch that dead dog!!!

I've seen them sleep like that out in the pasture. I guess it's because they have room to stretch out. My uncle had an old plow horse named Duke that never laid down. He slept in his stall standing up. Maybe it was because he was too dumb to lie down?

Guy near me had a full grown Clydesdale which would sleep like that. Big animal to see laying next to a fence.

People can get their average 8 hours of sleep in smaller blocks, too. In fact, outside western Europe and North America, most of the world sleeps a few hours at night and again in the afternoon.

I'd be on the phone to everyone i know with horses "hey you got any that like to lay out flat on their side? yeah? Can I take care of him for a couple weeks? I got a neighbor I want to f*** with".

Pretty common. I'll get several calls a year about my "sick or dead" horses. My pasture is visible from a major road with lots of city folks going by.