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Do horses lie down?

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Horses lie down during deeper sleep states. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep absolutely requires a horse to lie down. During REM sleep, while brain activity is actually increased, muscle tone is greatly diminished. read more

Horses do not like to lie down unless there is another horse by them that's on their feet (on guard). They will sleep comfortably on shavings or soft ground in a half sitting position with their legs tucked under them. When one or two horses are standing near them (on guard) they will lie flat out for REM sleep. read more

Most horse owners know their equine companions can’t lie down for long, but exactly why that is remains a mystery to many. “The longer they are down, the more prone they are to reperfusion injury,” said Elysia Schaefer, an equine surgery resident at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. read more

Therefore, horses do lie down to get proper sleep. They just don’t do it for very long. It turns out that horses do not require a lot of REM sleep — roughly two to three hours a night, typically in short bursts of ten to twenty minutes at a time. read more

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