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I'm trying to solve the puzzle of my horses' high heart rate recoveries and 
cri's at the recent Shamrock ride in WY.  Both horses were fit going into this 
ride and had done a tough hilly ride in the humid Ozarks a month before.  The 
trip to the ride, while long was easy with long rest stops and lots of grass, 
and a great overnight stop in W KS at my sister's farm.  Both horses were 
relaxed and ate and drank well on the trip and in camp when we got there on 
Wed.  They had a large pen with grass and both drank lots of water and ate all 
their usual feed.  The ride on Friday went well until the 2nd vet check.   My 
horse, Dually felt great all day and was going good.  We kept to our usual 
"middle of the pack" pace possibly going a little slower due to the longer 
climbs.  We met my other horse coming in from the 1st loop on the 30 as we were 
going out on the same loop.  I didn't think they even noticed each other.  
Guess Targa did though and was a little upset that his buddy was le
aving camp.  He got pulled for a high cri at this check I found out later.  I 
had no problems at the first check and Dually was going good on the 2nd loop 
and had plenty of energy and I was very surprised he didn't pluse right down 
since we walked the road into camp so my friend's horse would recover faster.  
Dually always has had great recoveries.  When he pulsed down after a few 
minutes and then went to the vet his heart rate was elevated from 56 to 72 I 
think. This was really surprising.  The vet waited a few minutes and he came 
down again but his cri was elevated.  She held his card and I was to go back 
for a recheck.  I decided if he wasn't down in the 40's I would pull.  He ate 
and drank well as usual and his pulse was down in the 40's when I went back to 
the vet.  Again his cri was a little elevated but not bad and since he looked 
and felt good and had all a's otherwise I opted to go on and do the last 10 mi. 
My friend's horse also had a high recovery heart rate and i
nverted cri's like my horse.  We just walked the last loop together and enjoyed 
the scenery, wildlife, etc.  We finished the ride with about 30 min. to spare.  
Some people said the altitude might have been a problem for our ct region 
horses but I had done this ride in the past with the same horse back when he 
was just starting his endurance career and not nearly in as good of condition 
as he was for this ride.  He did fine and finished the first day in around 8 
1/2 hrs.  I also had done all 3 days on another of my horses and he was one who 
didn't eat and drink all that well on trips.  The only thing I could come up 
with this time was that might have been different was the wind was a little 
stronger and the barometric pressure was high all morning this first day and 
then it dropped a lot about mid day.  The pressure the other time I was at the 
ride was pretty low and constant.  I guess my question is can barometric 
pressure drops cause heart rate problems?   That plus maybe th
e high wind is the only thing I can think of that might have caused my horse's 
normally good recoveries to be off.   Sorry this is such a long post but wanted 
to give as many details as possible. Thanks to anyone who might shed some light 
on this puzzle.  My friend upped her electrolytes when she rode the 3rd. day 
but she still had heart rate recovery problems with her horse.  This horse has 
done all 3 days at this ride before in the past.  I want to do this ride again 
next year do hope I can figure out how to avoid the problems I had this year.  
I had fun playing around the other two days though.  Happy Trails, Kathy

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