Sleeping Horses

I had a bit of a scare this morning while checking the horses. I had fed and mucked out my horses and was heading back from the manure pile when I saw something that froze me in my tracks. Our old war horse, Sabre, was sprawled out in his pen, seemingly lifeless. His teeth were bared in a death grimace, his eyes were open and cloudy looking, and I saw no signs of breathing. His body looked like a broken and lifeless heap of bones and hide. I hastened to his pen fearing the worst. I was already mentally preparing for the consequences of having to bury a horse when I saw something that changed my whole morning--a single spurt of vapor from one of his nostrils. As I approached his pen, Sabre started and rolled up on his side to look at me, bewildered from being woken from what was apparently a very deep sleep. Not convinced that he was not having a bout of colic, I went and got a halter and made him stand up. Sabre is a large horse and when he gets off the ground he makes a whole lot of prehistoric, dinosaur-like sounds which contributed to my anxiety. I took him to my shed to check his heart rate and found it to be about 54 beats per minute--high for a horse that is not experiencing pain. However, I soon realized that his heart rate wasn't high because he was in pain, but because I had scared him by waking him up and taking him away from his pen. I took him back to his pen and watched him for a while to make sure he wasn't having problems and then permitted myself to relax. The poor horse was just enjoying a good nap in the morning light when I came along and frightened him with my actions. Perhaps I should have just let a sleeping horse lie.