Re: RC: [Fwd: RC: [Fwd: RC: Heartrates up to 220]]

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

DreamWeaver wrote:

> Wolfgang:  What do you generally recover to?  Do you generally use 60 or
> another figure?

Hi Karen,

first we have to clarify which recovery you mean. Because the high hr-readings are
at the top of some hills during intervall-training, I do not let Ninja "recover"
between the heats. Generally, his hr drops to ~100 in that short time (4 minutes to
the next heat). As I wrote earlier, some readings at the bottom of the hill do not
show the hr caused by the training itself, but the excitement. We walk downhill,
the hr drops from 200+ down to 130, 120, 110 and as soon as we came near the
bottom: 140, 150 ;-).
Then there is a recovery after the training - cooling down the horse. Here I would
say a recovery to less then 60 within 30 minutes is a good number. Sometimes, I
have readings of 80-90 for 15 minutes, then suddenly a drop of 20 bpm. HR is not
the only thing for me to say "Ninja is recovered now". I watch the whole horse (as
you always should!), how he behaves, is he drinking, eating, color of urine etc.

> Any advice on how I can get my horses rates up higher?  It's not as if I
> don't have mountains, I'm surrounded by them (to almost 10,000').  All we
> do is hills, that's why we are so strong I think on the most difficult
> rides.  I haven't ever trained for speed on the flat.

Have you tried intervalls? If so, tell me more about them. If not, try it (yes,
some promotion for Tom: If you haven't bought his book "The fit racehorse II", you
really should think about buying it. I think Teddy offers them, as well as you can
order it from Tom directly). I do ride with a HRM for 8 years now, 2 years ago I
got that one with a memory function and a computer interface. At the very beginning
I believed what "old timers" say: A hr of 200+ is bad, stay around 150 etc. etc.
etc. Then I ordered a booklet from Australia (sorry, I am not good with names, will
look at home) about "Monitoring the hr of horses". After that, and encouraged by
Tom's book now, I know that there is a difference between a high heartrate and a
high maximum heartrate. So, readings of 200+ not scare me, as long as they drop
after a given time. I think it is impossible to get a hr of 200+ in the flat. You
have the mountains, so use them.

> Any idea how far (distance) you are trotting in 10 minutes at 130?

In competition-ready fitness Ninja will do ~ 4 km in the flat at 130. Last year in
competition we have average-readings of 110-114 between VG's in a flat race in the
Netherlands. It was to warm (for May) as well as it was very sandy (deep sand),
which we do not have at home. The speed was 15km/h.

> Would it really benefit my horses to work them at higher rates?  I haven't
> ever been able to get their rates up to 200 or above, and even if they get
> close to that it drops right back down.  I suppose I would have to carry
> more weight or carry a whip and make them go even faster?  I'm afraid that
> right now they are both conditioned to decrease speed as soon as they get
> to 165 on the HRM, and we never go above that in competition.

Again, read Tom's book. Yes, your horses will benefit from that work. You don't
need more weight (can be dangerous depending on where you carry it) or a whip to go
faster. Use your hills. Do intervalls. And tell us about the results. You will have
an improvement within the first 4-5 weeks.

> Thanx,
> Karen
> in NV
>
> P.S.  the only time I have had the HR go over 200 was when a mountain lion
> growled at us, and the horse wasn't even moving (I about jumped clear to
> the moon tho! <G>)

Wow, I am so happy that we don't have something like mountain lions here in
Germany. There were wild boars sometimes, but one never knows who is more
frightened: The boars, Ninja or me ;-)

Happy trails, and success,

Wolfgang (hey, sound like I am a promoter for Tom, but I do that kind of training
long before I ever thought of Ridecamp, emails and so on)
Ninja 11 (mountains lions? Are that thoses nice cats around the stable?
Germany