Older horse laying down a lot? Too much?

[Ellybellyboo]

We have a 21 year old, recently retired horse

She’s always been quite a fan of laying flat out, snoring her head off and a few times she’s caught me out with one of those ‘oh my god, I think the horse is dead’ moments. I’d leg it up the field with my heart in my throat only for her to give me a filthy look because I’d dared to wake her up.

We retired her a few months ago due to quite bad arthritis and moved yards. Her new field has a footpath running alongside one edge, and a road runs along another

She’s worried a few of our new fellow liveries and our new yard owner and I’ve seen a few posts about her on our local FB pages as laying down that much isn’t ‘normal’

She’s seen a vet recently and I mentioned it but he has no concerns, no signs of colic and seems happy and healthy and said there was nothing to worry about, it’s just normal for her. When she is on her feet she’s bouncing around, she’s not lame and she doesn’t struggle to get up

Last night I brought her in, gave her her dinner then went to poo pick her field. I ended up chatting and faffing, watched DD ride her pony for a bit before walking back through the barn - and she was flat out asleep. I’ve never seen her laying down that early before, she’s usually eating her haynet when we leave - but then we were there a lot longer than usual

I wasn't worried, but I don’t know, maybe I should be.

Sorry, posted too soon, I meant to add

I can’t quite work out if the increase in panicked messages is just because she’s in a new yard with new people and out in a field that’s more visible to the general public or whether she is just laying down a lot more now

Is there a ‘normal’?

Some horses do. My friends horses seem to nothing other than lie flat out and only wake up when ridden whereas mine doesn't ever lie down (or is seen doing it!)
Probably people just panicking as new yard, it's good she feels relaxed enough to do it

Is she out on fresh grass? Ours are lying out a lot more than they did over winter, mostly because they are full up and sleepy :D

My pony does this alot she's only 2 I often go into the paddock to see if she's still alive she won't even twitch if I call her I have to go in and she might lift her head and look at me annoyed for waking her up. It's usually on a nice day after she's had her breakfast she is usual in the same spot too. She's full of life otherwise.

We haven’t had much in the way of rain so it’s not growing much.

But then she’s not eating all her hay at night and she’s not getting any less rotund.

When she’s actually upright, she’s full of herself. If I hadn’t have seen her x-rays with my own eyes, I’d think she was faking .

She’s just not upright all that much I don’t think

I think if she's happy and healthy otherwise then don't worry about it. The key thing is that she can get up fine. OK so maybe she's slowing down and sleeping more, but she's old and retired, she's allowed to. If she starts to have a problem getting up then I think I'd be worried. My boy is lying down a fair bit at the moment. He's retired and often full of grass so I leave him be.

Ours is 20 - ISH - and has always laid flat out. DD used to go and lay with her! As long as she is fine in other ways then I wouldn’t worry too much. If she never did it, then I would be worried.

If she manages to lie down and get up with no problems and seems pain free when walking I wouldn’t worry about it.