Question: Is it normal for horses to lay on their sides? We drove past a pasture and saw two laying on their sides. My mom said she didn't think it was normal, but I know next to nothing about horses (other than that one tried to eat my hair...) so I'm curious.
Wikipedia says yes.
Sleep patterns
A
draft horse sleeping while standing up
Horses can sleep both standing up and lying down. They can 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.
[27] 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.
[28] 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 on the inside bottom end of the
femur cups the patella and the medial patella
ligament, preventing the leg from bending.
[29]
Horses do not need a solid unbroken period of sleep time. They obtain needed sleep by many short periods of rest. This is to be expected of a
prey animal, 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 asleep; total sleep time in a day may range from several minutes to two hours.
[30] 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.
[31]
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.
[30] 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.
[32]This condition differs from
narcolepsy, which horses may suffer from.
[31]
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.
[30]
I completely forgot about those exquisite mosaics. Part of the reason is that many times (when I've visited the MK) they've had those corridors blocked off. Maybe I was just there near show times or whatever, but I think it's been at least a few years since I've seen those. I recall years ago that they always had the castle open for people to pass through, or maybe I was just lucky and was there at the right times. I used to also love the "original" gift shop inside; they used to have cool stuff in there.
