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FW: [RC] Excitement affecting horse's heart rate - Curtis, Laura \(LauraCurtis\)

In my opinion, having a back of the pack type attitude, only folks who
are really competive need to worry about the extra advantage of these
'tricks'.  If you're just riding to complete, and your horse is in
shape, don't worry about it.

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chelsea Marsh
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:57 PM
To: rides2far@xxxxxxxx
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] Excitement affecting horse's heart rate

I just called it what they called it, a "trick". I didn't mean anything
derogatory about it. When you said it affected "when" and not "whether"
they pulsed down that helped alot, thanks! I guess I'm just worried
that, what if I do all the necessary conditioning and then my horse
doesn't pulse down for some reason having nothing to do with whether she
is fit to continue or not? Your reasons why for doing those things
though were great. Thanks again!
On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:48:09 -0500, rides2far@xxxxxxxx said:
I was reading about Vet checks and I've been told what people refer 
to as "tricks" to getting their horses pulse down. For example 
sponging them,

What's a "trick" about that? The horse's core temperature rises when 
he is exercising. When he stops his heart pumps blood to the surface 
to cool it off, then that blood goes back in and cools the core. If 
it's a hot day the air on the surface doesn't cool much, but by 
sponging water on the surface you cool that blood which returns to the

inside. No more of a trick than you fanning yourself on a hot day.


not letting them stick their head up in their air, make sure
they> don't see their buddy walking off, etc. Doesn't your horses 
they> heart

rate> come down because he's in shape? 

I imagine that if a marathon runner looks up in their rear view mirror

and sees  blue lights their pulse probably goes up...doesn't mean 
they're not in shape. A basketball player may have a racing pulse just

before the tip off, doesn't mean he's overexerting standing there, but

that pulse is the only way we judge whether they're recovered and 
there's no way for the vet to know the difference in a horse whose 
pulse is 72 because he's still recovering from the trail or the one 
whose pulse just jumped from
52 to 72 because his best buddy just walked away and abandoned him.


Are these things necessary?

Maybe not if you're in no hurry. You can just stand there till your 
horse calms down or cools off on his own. If you like to lose time, 
more power to ya.


 I know
that> whether your horse is comfortable will effect his heart rate,
hence
why> you might sponge him off or dump water on him. My question is
whether> (assuming your horse is in shape and can handle the pace
you've set)
outside sources (that might excite your horse) are going to effect
you> horse enough that he won't pulse down to the required rate 
you> despite

the> horses ability to handle the ride

It shouldn't so much affect *whether* he pulses down as *when*. If 
your competition gets out 2 minutes ahead of you they're gone. If you 
can pulse down really fast in a vet check, that's speed you *didn't* 
need on the trail so you can go slower. :-)  One thing you're 
forgetting about sponging. I sometimes keep sponging after my horse is

down because I like to remove all the crud, up between his hind legs, 
all around the girth area, anything that might irritate his skin as 
the ride progresses. The best time to remove it is before it hardens 
and while he's kinda hot. I don't like to bother him once I'm back 
from the vet so unless I'm racing and if it's pretty warm I do the
full clean up (though fast).

My horse Kaboot always pulsed down slowest at the first check because 
he was feeling racey and wanting to go. His pulses improved the 
farther he went, because he chilled out. The physical exertion was 
fairly constant, the temperature of the day probably went up, but his 
excitement level went down thus faster recoveries.

Angie



--
 Chelsea Marsh
 chelsea_marsh@xxxxxxxxxxx


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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
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Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

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