The Importance of Rest

Rest is critically important for recovery from exercise. Without rest, you don’t build muscles, topline, fitness or strength. Sleep is a very important part of learning.

While they spend very little time laying down, the amount of time they do lay down is for REM sleep. Horses can stand and sleep thanks to their stay apparatus, but can only enter slow wave sleep while standing, not REM. When laying down and in REM sleep, horses lose all muscle tone and will fall if they are still standing. Horses typically need 30-40 minutes of REM sleep in a 24 hour period and they don’t have to get it all at one time. Even though it’s just a small amount each day, if horses miss out on the REM sleep there can be big consequences for them.

If a horse doesn’t feel comfortable lying down, whether because of pain or anxiety, they miss out on REM sleep. After weeks of no REM sleep, they may experience what’s called “sleep crashing”, when they enter REM sleep standing up and “crash” to the ground. Owners may never see this, and may just see wounds on the front of the horse’s fetlocks, knees or face as the only symptom. True narcolepsy is quite rare in horses, but sleep deprivation isn’t as rare unfortunately.

Risk factors for sleep deprivation:

Being alone- horses in the wild and in domestic situations prefer to sleep when there are herd mates to keep watch. A horse who lives alone may not feel comfortable laying down to sleep.

A busy environment- horses travelling to show continuously may not feel safe laying down in the string of new and unfamiliar environments

Small stalls- horses may not feel safe laying down and getting back up again

Pain- arthritis or painful soft tissue conditions can make it hard for a horse to get up and down