01/07/2026
💤 SLEEP AND 🖐️BODYWORK FOR OUR HORSES 🐴
👉Sleep is one of Your Horse’s Most Powerful Healing ❤️🩹 Tools.
❓ How Horses Sleep:
1. Standing sleep (light sleep). Horses can doze while standing thanks to a structure called the stay apparatus, which allows their legs to lock and support their weight. This is light sleep and helps them rest without fully relaxing.
2. Lying down sleep (deep & REM sleep). For deep sleep and REM sleep, horses must lie down. REM sleep is essential for:
• Nervous system reset
• Memory and learning
• Muscle relaxation
• Emotional regulation
Most horses need to lie down for short periods each day to get enough REM sleep.
🧠 Why This Matters:
If a horse doesn’t feel safe, comfortable, or physically able to lie down (from pain or stiffness, tension in the body, herd or stall dynamics, environmental stress) => they may become sleep deprived, even if they appear calm or rested.
Over time, this can affect:
•Movement quality
•Behavior and tolerance
•Performance and recovery
⚡️Signs a horse may be sleep deprived include:
• Increased stiffness
• Irritability or reduced tolerance
• Poor coordination or performance
• Excessive drowsiness
💙 Where Mane Motion Equine Bodywork Fits In:
By supporting comfort and nervous system relaxation, our bodywork can help remove physical and neurological barriers that make it hard for a horse to fully rest, especially the kind of rest that only happens lying down.
During our sessions, we support the horse’s ability to relax by helping the nervous system shift out of “work mode” and into the parasympathetic state, the place where healing, digestion, tissue repair, and deep rest happen.
🫶When the nervous system can relax, the body can truly rest 😴
Www.manemotionequine.com
