Horses Laying Down

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about horses when we were gifted our 2 beautiful (and stubborn) horses. So, when I saw one of them laying down one day, I became alarmed.

“𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵? 𝘋𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯???”

So, like most Americans, I consulted Google. Turns out, horses DO lay down sometimes. (My favorite title was “𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙙” )

Horses 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 lay down when they need deep sleep, are sick, or just want to relax. And when there is more than 1 horse, they will take turns — one will stand guard over the other. But only when they’re comfortable in their environment. They’ll very rarely lay down together – this has been true for our horses so far; I’ve never seen them both laying down.

They are their own little community. I recently learned Americans are the loneliest they’ve ever been in history. Some might believe tight knit tribes don’t exist in our modern world anymore, but I think we have potential,𝐈𝐅 we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. 𝐈𝐅 we choose to trust those in our inner circles to stand guard every now & then.

Do 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ever allow others to stand watch over you, or are you always on alert, ready for the next crisis? Or are you the one always guarding others?

[Photo note: In the past year, this is the best picture I’ve been able to capture of one horse standing and one laying down, as the standing horse 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 senses me creeping up, and alerts the other before I can grab a pic. Or maybe they’re finally learning to trust the carrot-carrying lady? ]