Could Sleep Patterns of Horses be an Early Warning for Their Ill Health?

Scientists in England are monitoring night-time sleep in horses as part of a study that aims to see if equine rest patterns could provide early warnings about their ill health. They want to see if they can identify specific patterns of rest for individual horses, as well as the factors that might be influencing rest, such as exercise, temperature, age and personality. The researchers hope that if they can find what a “normal” rest pattern is for a particular horse then any deviation from this might alert owners to the fact that something is wrong.