Turning Off The Lights

The United States Equestrian Federation recently passed a new rule governing the length of time that lights can be on at horse shows during the overnight hours, as well as limiting sound, such as radios and loudspeakers. There must be six consecutive hours without lights or noise.

If you compete, you know that the evening hours and even the early hours are a beehive of activity, as horses are getting braided, legs iced, or horses are being tended to by bodyworkers.

Rule GR1215 was created for the good of the horse, allowing them to get a sound night’s sleep. Since horses are polyphasic opportunistic sleepers, they sleep throughout the day and night, with the majority of their sleep occurring at night. When you factor in the schedule of a typical horseshow, plus all of the noise and commotion, there isn’t much opportunity for horses to get much rest during the day. When show barns continue to be active in the nighttime hours, the horse is missing more opportunities to sleep, which can lead to horses being sleep-deprived. There are several studies being conducted on horses and sleep deprivation. Could spooking, health issues such as ulcers, and poor performance be linked to not getting enough sleep? I know how I am if I don’t get a good night’s sleep. Why would a horse, or any animal, react any differently?

To be honest, I was one of those competitors who was at the barn before daylight and many times I was there way past what should be my bedtime. There was always at least one radio blaring and while there was a quietness that was different from the activity during the day, it wasn’t dark, it wasn’t truly quiet and it wasn’t still. If you have ever ventured down to your barn at 3 am, you know what I mean by it being still.

And I never really gave it a thought, until I bought my farm 4 years ago. We are surrounded by woods, which means we have bears, coyotes and bobcats. Not only do I have a horse and donkeys, but I have barn cats, goats, chickens, and ducks. And while everyone is safely tucked away at night, I heard horror stories of bears ripping off coop doors and bobcats and coyotes finding a way into stalls to attack goats.

My L-shaped, shed row barn has lights in front of each of the 6 stalls, plus a light inside each stall, hanging from the ceiling, and an additional 6 lights hanging from the ceiling in front of each stall. There are two motion sensor lights on the outside of the barn, one on the outside wall where my Thoroughbred is stalled and the other on the back side of the barn, on the side where my goats are stalled. In addition, there is a power pak dusk-to-dawn light on the opposite end of the barn, where no animals are stalled, another power pak on the side of my house facing the barn, and another dusk-to-dawn light, provided by the power company, above my coops and about 75 feet from the barn.

My husband and I joke about how it is just a matter of time before a pilot mistakes our farm for the airport.

I also play a radio in the barn, far away from the animals and tucked away in a walk-in shed that is attached to my barn. And here is a tip: no matter how soft you think you are playing a radio, there is 5 pm soft and there is 3 am soft. There is a difference! I keep mine at 3 am soft (yes, I have been in the barn at that hour!)

My biggest fear, however, isn’t the wildlife. I live in Florida, where our biggest predators are the human kind. While we have had poachers in our area, I am more afraid of the horse butchers. We have been cased and had suspicious activity, with random gates opened. We had not installed cameras yet, so we were unable to identify the suspect, or find out what scared them off, but I know all too well what that meant. I want my barn to be a big deterrent to anyone looking to turn my big moose of a Thoroughbred into someone’s black market dinner, and if having lots of lights is a deterrent, then so be it!

I realized that we were probably overdoing the lights, not to mention the harm to night creatures, including migrating birds flying at night.

To be fair, the only lights on in my barn were 4 lights next to the 4 stalls on the long side, where only the goats sleep at night. The overhead lights never stay on. But after reading A Horse By Nature, by Mary Ann Simonds, I wondered if I could do more. Sure, Gabe’s stall was dark when I did my nighttime bed checks. But there were nonetheless, 4 lights lighting up the long side of the barn. Not to mention the power pak lights. He can sometimes be spooky about stupid things…was it because he was sleep-deprived? He also naps a lot during the day. A LOT!! Could the reason be due to not getting enough sleep at night?

Now, all of the barn lights are turned off at the bed check, which is rarely past 9:00, since I am in bed not long afterward. That gives Gabe and his donkey girls, Fiona and Blossom, not to mention Jake and Elmo, the goats, a good 10 hours of darkness. I can still look out my windows and see into the barn with the aid of the power paks and hopefully, our German Shepherd, who alerts us often in the middle of the night to various critters, will do his job in case someone comes casing our barn again. And I feel good knowing that I am doing my part when it comes to the welfare of my animals.

I think that it is great that organizations such as the USEF are beginning to recognize horse welfare to include more than just bad-fitting tack and abusive riders. Acknowledging that horses can be sleep deprived is a step in the right direction, with hopefully more consideration into the well-being of horses taken into consideration.

What steps are you taking to address your horse’s well-being?