Time Spent With and For Us

Some horses spend more time with us than others, either being groomed or trained, being ridden, or actually working like police horses and those used for agricultural, forestry or other purposes. Your horse may spend an hour being groomed and ridden or you may require it to put in a full work day depending on how you use it. Some horses will spend part or even most of their day on our behalf in stalls.

There may be a good reason for a horse to be in a stall such as stall rest for an injury, but usually it’s for our convenience. The time a horse doesn’t spend eating any food we provide it is spent waiting, perhaps dozing or at worst, engaging in something like weaving, cribbing or stall walking. All of these types of behaviors are an indication of boredom and frustration. We are in complete control of our horse’s time when they are in a stall.

Eating

Horses in the wild spend about two-thirds of their time searching and eating food. A lot this time may be spent in looking for food, and it can keep them constantly traveling. Wild horses can travel over twenty miles each day in a slow, steady search for forage and water. When grass is plentiful, they eat more and travel less. But, when forage is thin, they may have to spend most of their day going from tuft to tuft, eating a bit here and there.

Horses have a small stomach in relation to the size of its digestive tract and it is better suited to small, frequent meals, than one or two large ones.

they don’t need to take time out to digest as ruminants such as deer or cattle do. Their stomach constantly empties into their small intestine as the horse gradually keeps it partially full by grazing.

One of the reasons so many backyard horses become overweight is because food is readily available, such as in the form of a round bale, and the horse doesn’t have to travel very far to get it. We also keep horses in small pastures relative to what a wild horse’s natural range would be. That means our horses rarely get as much exercise, or have to deal with any scarcity of food that wild horses do. So, our horses don’t spend as much time exercising themselves, and spend more of their time eating.

Sleeping

Most of us enjoy a good eight hours sleep, but horses sleep less, and they spend very short times in deep sleep. Some mature horses will only sleep about two hours a day. The total time they sleep varies among individuals and is affected by age, size, health, weather, stress and environment.  Foals may sleep after every nursing and these frequent naps can take up half of their day. As a horse ages, it sleeps less. Senior horses however, may nap more frequently.  Most horses don’t necessarily sleep at night unless they feel very safe. They may spend a portion of their sleep time laying down, although they can get very relaxed and comfortable standing up to sleep.   In How Horses Sleep, you can learn more about the sleeping habits of horses.

Mothering

Mares don’t spend a lot of their time specifically on mothering their foals. Foals are expected to keep up, although a mare might stop what she is doing for a short time to let her foal nurse. While a foal plays, nibbles on grass in imitation of the other horses or naps, the mare will graze or hang out with pasture mates. Mares rarely play with their foals. They do mete out some discipline, as will other pasture mates, if the foal becomes to saucy and crosses the boundaries of good herd behavior. Stallions in the wild will watch over and protect a herd, but domestic stallions are more likely to spend their time away from other horses.

 

Hanging Out

Like us, horses like to hang out with their companions. When not eating, sleeping or traveling, horses spend their time allogrooming and just hanging out. They may stand head to haunch, taking advantage of a friend’s tail to swish away flies, while they do the same on the other end. They will scratch each other with their teeth and rub their heads on each other, especially when there are biting flies.

Young horses play more frequently than older horses and a group of youngsters may gallop, buck, nip and kick at each other as they cavort and play fight. Some individuals will be playful their whole lives, but this type of behavior tends to fade as horses age. Some like to do things like toss buckets around, or play with pasture toys. But, when not eating or sleeping, horses are content just to relax and enjoy the sunshine.