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Thanks, Lynn.  I was rolling that basic concept around in my mind, and wasn't coming up with a good explanation.

 

I well remember Lew Hollander trying to get a horse to pulse down one time, and he was having a heck of a time.  He was frantically working with a wet towel and a bucket, water here, water there, and all that activity was keeping the horse's pulse sky high.  (Those of you who know Lew well will appreciate this scenario!  <g>)  I was just crewing, so I took the horse away from Lew and went off and stood out of the center of the hubbub for about two minutes and the horse's pulse dropped like a rock. 

 

If I could rate the factors that affect pulse recovery, I'd say that the top factors are genetics, fitness, ambient condition, and rider's attitude.  Often the rider's attitude is something just innate about them, and they can no more change who they are than the man in the moon.  And horses really key in on that.

 

Bruce, you're.....well.....you're you.  The same thing that makes you a great guy and the life of the party is probably worth about 8 beats.

 

Heidi

>   But, Heidi, the heart rate/pulse recovery thing happens on all my
>horses when either of my kids or my wife rides them, versus that
>which happens when I'm on them. You're saying that my kids and my
>wife must have better equitation/riding skill than I do under all
>circumstances on all horses?

It's likely not just pure equitation.  When my step daughter and I
were both competing and riding together (largely in NATRC where
recovery is taken as a scoring element and at that time they recorded
in-coming pulse as well as out-going),  she had the lighter bodied
horse and was a featherweight, whereas I had a barrel shaped, very
muscular horse and was double *her* weight.  But whatever horse I was
on, even if I rode her horse that ride, tended to have the lower
in-coming pulse  and recovery pulse.  She had good equitation and was
light on the reins, but the fellow we trained with teased that she
had an "electric butt" that kept the horse charged up (she was an
aggressive rider).  Made her a good rider in the show ring, where you
want the horse "hot" and animated  -- but it worked against her (and
the horse) in a distance competition.

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