Now that my horses are living on a track system, we’ve implemented several forms of enrichment for them that have been crucial to their happiness and well-being. Offering them safe and comfortable sleeping stations is one of them! We have multiple areas that they take advantage of depending on the day and weather.

Sleep deprivation is a regularly occurring issue in a large number of horses. Some horses, especially those who live outside full-time appreciate safe and soft places where they are able to rest, relax and rejuvenate.

By enhancing the happiness of the whole horse, this allows them to be more authentically available to connect with their other herd members including horses and humans.

Sandpit

The first sleep station offered is the sandpit. We have a small arena filled with river sand that is directly connected to the paddocks at the bottom of our mountainside track. This works out great because I can leave the sand arena open at all times for them to enjoy whenever or I can close it off when working with one horse individually. Since it’s connected directly to the track and their living area the horses are able to keep an eye on one another and no longer experience separation anxiety while their buddy is hanging with me in the arena. We have a small herd and they prefer to stick together which is perfectly understandable. This setup has been a win-win for everyone! The sand offers them soft ground to stand or sleep on, though they mostly love to roll in it. It’s been easy to maintain and drains well. The sand also offers them a different surface to walk on.

Deeply Bedded Shelter

The second sleeping quarters offered is a deeply bedded run-in shelter. You might be wondering why I would deeply bed their shelter since my horses live outside full time and have other sleeping options available… Well, first of all, it’s built like a stall with mats and if they decide to use the restroom in there and they don’t have bedding, it obviously makes a huge mess. Second, they absolutely love having the covered space lie down in. We noticed that they really seem to love having a bedded stall so we keep it that way for them. I use a mix of shavings and pellets.

I offer hay in the shelter during poor weather but otherwise they have full autonomy to come in and out of here. This cuts down on soiled shavings since they mostly just use this space for rest and extra shade. Rather than it being used a litter box, they seem to understand it is a space for relaxation.

I unintentionally potty trained my mares which is probably a contributing factor too! By piling up all of the manure from the day and putting it in once pile, after several days, they caught on and started using their new poo pile. I’ve also noticed one of my mares prefers to pee in piles of leaves! Of course, they do occasional use the bedding as a bathroom, but it’s not anything like having a deeply bedded stall where they is their only choice for bathroom.

Pasture

The third option our horses have for sleeping is up on the sparse but grassy hill in their smaller pasture track. There is no shelter and it’s in an open area but I frequently catch them napping and sprawled out up there, even at night.

Sometimes they sleep in the trees, or in the dry loafing area near our main barn, but these are the three main places they choose to get their REM & deep sleep.