Do horses "dream", or should I be worried...

[FindersKeepers]

So this afternoon, the old grey mare wanders outside to her napping spot right in the middle of the field. She lays down, stretches out on her side (not unusual, at all) Then after about 15 minutes, her back feet start running and she starts breathing hard. That goes off and on for about 5 minutes. Still flat on her side. Then her gelding husband walks over to her, touches her nose, and it wakes her up and she leaps to her feet, shakes herself off, and is fine.

So was she dreaming, or... should I be worried it was something neurological? Nothing else was off. No temp, vitals all normal, eating, drinking, pooping...

My dog dreams all the time...but I've never seen a horse do it...

[Daydream Believer]

Yes, horses dream. :D

[Well Rounded Rider]

They deffinitely dream...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moVPyBY8p9Y

Though I think the sleep 'talkers' are funnier.

[LLDM]

Yep, dreaming and running - just like a dog. I have a gelding who does that on occasion in his stall. He runs, jumps, whirls, whinnies, snorts and bites his pasture buddies - all flat out in his sleep. And yes, he does it when he's awake too. Absolutely cracks me up every time. He's not neurological, just occasionally neurotic. :winkgrin:

SCFarm

[rainechyldes]

REM (rapic eye movement) sleep occurs in all mammals except the dolphin (uhm.. bluenose I think) and echnidna's (sp?)

A popular theory is the the amount of REM sleep is correlates somehow to the developmental stages of newborns. How..don't ask me, that's all I remember:)

So yep, she's dreaming:)

[Vandy]

I have a few in my barn who are "active" dreamers. One of them definitely dreams about galloping :)

[Ritazza]

I live in an apartment in the barn where I work, and my bedroom is next to the stall of a VERY LOUD dreamer... every day without fail at 4:30am she is flat out in her stall rhythmically snorting, groaning and clonking against the wall.... nope, not colicky, we checked her out and she was just sleeping.... and she does it EVERY SINGLE DAY at the exact same time! And wakes me up, of course!

[Tree]

I've seen some of mine doing it and while working at a client's barn, heard the mare in the next stall softly whinnying but she was flat out and asleep.

Tree

[BornToRide]

This is so funny, thanks for sharing. I regularly watch my dogs and cats do it, but have never seen a horse do the same :D

[amdfarm]

My stallion grunts and snores when he's really out of it, but I've only ever seen foals dreaming, no other adult horses other than my stallion.

Dogs and cats do it all of time and one cat is noisy, too. He meows in his sleep.

[FindersKeepers]

Phew!! Thanks guys! I was a little nervous because I've had her for 10 years, and she does love to lay out flat and zonk out for about an hour in the field everyday... but I've never caught her dreaming. I'll just be glad she's comfortable enough to sleep int he middle of the field that soundly.

The most hilarious part was her gelding. He stood over her for the full 5 minutes she was back on the racetrack :lol: and would stare at her, then look around, then stare again, with this deer in the headlights expression. Then he touched her, and scared her awake and she leaped to her feet. He was terrified.

I do have a little dog (weighs 12 pounds, white and fluffy) that is a very active dreamer... he thinks he's a wolf, because he runs, bites, and howls at the moon, all sound asleep.

[yellowbritches]

Of course, I didn't figure this out until years into dealing with horses on a daily basis. :lol:

The first time I witnessed it was the day our NZ horse arrived. He was exhausted (12 hour flight Auckland to LA then 5 day road trip from LA to VA), ad spent most of that first day down and sleeping. I was fretting over him a bit, considering the stress he'd been through, and at one point I checked on him, and was terrified he was having some sort of seizure!!! :eek::eek::lol: I woke him up, poor guy.:lol: He forgave me and was back asleep in a little while. I felt so bad and like a HUGE dork that I had no idea horses could and did dream much like dogs do.

Now at least I know what's going on...it's kinda cute, and the sleep talkers are hysterical!

[ASB Stars]

I have a stallion who has a morning nap, each day, and routinely carries on in his sleep. He snorts, and nickers, and makes generally silly stallion noises. He is the only one I have who does this consistently, but it is pretty funny! :lol:

[unbridledoaks]

I trained a stallion who dreamed all the time when he would just lay down and sleep. He would dream the most at shows, which I thought was funny.

[horselover11]

Wow, this is so cute! I had no idea either! Hopefully they dream about US! :D:lol:

[mjrtango93]

We have a mare that dreams and hard! She always goes down to sleep 4-6 hours a day and whinnies and her entire body will move, not just leg twitches. We had another gelding that snored sooooooo loud you could hear him down the barn aisle.

[2DogsFarm]

When I was a working student at a barn with carriage horses (mostly Draft X) we had one who snored so loud you could hear it clear at the opposite end of the barn!
The first time I was alone there and heard him I nearly called the owner - I thought he was having a seizure.
He also trotted in his sleep - diagonal pairs twitching.
Talk about sleepwalking - I think he was sleep-driving!

[Gayla]

I went to a "Horse Day" at UC Davis a million years ago and one of the students did a little talk on sleep. Horses have to do both slow wave and rapid wave sleep. They do slow wave sleep while they stand with their locking knees. Dozing if you will. Bit they must lay down for REM sleep for several hours a day. If they can't lay down they go batty just like humans. Long rides must be hell for them.