I was wondering whether or not people knew anything about whether or not horses laid down on the ground much. I saw one of my horses down on the ground twice today and I have never seen them really do that before in my whole life. Granted I don't watch them all the time but it is freezing outside and I hope it doesnt mean he is getting to weak to stand up or is dying?

s2tp

Some horses do lay down a lot, mostly when they are younger or smaller horses. The bigger they get the more uncomfortable it is to lay down and get back up. Normally if there is something wrong with your horse, he will show other symptoms. if he is not eating or drinking, or if he keeps looking at his stomach, like trying to stretch his neck and touch his stomach he may have colic. Its actually very common in cold weather cause the water is so cold a horse doesnt want to drink it, then he eats and his food starts to bind up in their stomach and get stuck without the lubrication of water. This can happen over night.

If your horse is eating fine, and doesnt seem to be in any distress then I would not worry about it too much. Do you have a blanket for the horse? does he lay down all day or just some of the time? He may just be cold and by laying on the ground he is able to conserve some heat. If you have not already check his body temperature. You can use thermometers or you can just place your hand up under his his armpit and see if he is warm. Average body temp for a horse is 99-101f. If its as cold as you say, he really should have a blanket to help him stay warm.

If it IS freezing, make sure that the water is not freezing over, and be sure to check that your horses are urinating and defecating... It may seem gross to keep track of that, but you really should know what is normal for your horses so that you will be able to tell if they become sick. Our horses urinate about 6-7 times a day, and defecate about 10 times. Of course we dont sit there and watch them, but we can see where they urinate and count their piles. Its not like we keep a chart, but if we go to clean a corral and its dry with only 1 or 2 piles, we know something is wrong... Which is also why we clean every morning and every evening during feeding time.

Here are some good links to browse for more horse care;
Winter Tips:
Winter Horse Care and Health

Overall Horse Care:
General Horse Care Guidelines

TheHorse.com: Your Online Guide to Equine Health Care

More on Colic:
Horse colic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.horse-abc.com/Colic_Crisi...FQipEAodgSZgFQ

AYB91087

I train horse and have been around them my whole life. Yes they do lay down alot. The ground's temp. feels great. It is always best to have you horse vet checked if you notice any type of different behavior. They are not very sensitve animals and you may not know you have a problem until it is too late.

Copperhead6

okay guys, i think they are fine! i didnt notice anything today! i think it was just weird because they had gotten out of the pasture and i walked out to my car around 11 last night and one was sleeping right beside my car and i almost walked right up on him before we woke up! usually they are way more alert than that! but they seemed fine today!

robynhgl

He probably got tired of trying to figure out a way to 'hot wire' it...LOL! Next time--leave in the keys!

J/K!

I'm glad that everything seems fine with the horse.

horse101

Your horses are probaly just tired. My horse lays down almost every day!!! They are probably just taking a nap!

Copperhead6

okay thanks, i had never seen that before, guess i just hadnt looked!

Panamaa

There is a very good article in this months EQUUS magazine about sleep deprived horses......actually might be last months....read it.