Though equine welfare activists often recommend that horses be housed in groups, with as much turnout as possible, this way of living may present challenges for domestic horses trying to get enough sleep.
Quality sleep is a welfare concern, and one that shouldn't be compromised for other areas of equine welfare, like living amongst friends, Linda Kjellberg of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala told The Horse.
In group resting spaces, horses wake up and move about every 10 minutes. When the space is too small, horses can be constantly disrupted, getting about half the amount of sleep they need, Kjellberg explained.
Group housing for horses has become popular in parts of Europe. To study how this method of housing affects equine sleep, Kjellberg and a group of scientists studied the sleep habits of 12 Swedish Warmblood geldings that were between 3 and 17 years old and housed together.
The researchers put the horses in four different housing situations for 10 days:
- In a box stall at night and in group turnout during the day;
- In constant turnout with a shelter with a small lying area (86 square feet of space per horse);
- In constant turnout with two shelters with medium-lying areas per horse (196 square feet per horse); and
- In group turnout with one shelter that had a large lying area per horse (300 square feet per horse).
The stall was bedded in shavings and the shelters were bedded in straw.
In all shelters, no matter the size, the horses got up about every 10 minutes. Horses had the least amount of sleep in the smallest rest area; they laid down less often and for shorter periods (about 69 minutes in 24 hours, 22 of which the horse laid flat on its side). In the stalls, horses laid down for 145 minutes, 52 of which were flat on their side.
The horses in medium-lying areas got nearly the same amount of sleep as those in box stalls, averaging 130 minutes in 24 hours. There was minimal difference between the horses housed in the medium and large lying areas, so an overly spacious resting area is not a necessity.
How many times a horse laid down in 24 hours depended on how he was housed. The horses in stalls laid down between one to six times; horses in the medium rest area laid down between two to six times; and horses in the small rest area laid down between zero and five times.
Kjellberg noted no significant difference between individual horses. Horses that had comfortable bedding, and those that felt safe and secure, were more likely to lie down more often and for longer.
Read more at The Horse.
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