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I ride a non-Arabian but not a gaited horse.  When he was just starting 
his endurance career, his heart rate was always higher than that of the 
Arabians I trained with, but it dropped very fast and he never had any 
problems.  Over the years of conditioning, his heart rate improved but 
it will never be quite as low as most Arabians.  All I care about is how 
fast it comes down.  I am also very careful to ride him within his 
limits.  I now longer use a hrm because I've learned that I couldn't 
over-ride him even if I wanted to.  He slows down when he needs to on 
his own.
Your well conditioned horse sounds wonderful.  And I'll bet that if you 
choose to start a long and slow conditioning program for the other 
horse, his heart rate will improve.  Finding a gait that both horse and 
rider are happy with for many miles seems to be the most important part 
of conditioning for a gaited horse since most have lots of "gear" to 
choose from.  If your horse's heart rate continues to stay high at the 
trot, I'd look for another gait he can do more efficiently.
Good luck!
Laney
Anderson, Kristie Lynn wrote:
> Ok, so a friend rode one of my TWH boys to try his first 50 this past Feb and noticed something very odd with his HR. I've never ridden this horse in a monitor before. This horse (8y/o gelding) is able to perform a running walk, trot, pace, canter, and what I call his "lateral canter" under saddle. I prefer to condition him at a trot with some normal cantering. I don't permit him to perform the lateral gaits, as often they're associated with him misbehaving. At liberty, this horse trots nearly 90% of the time, and only tends to pace when he gets nervous. He's in reasonably good shape.
>
> His rider noticed that on the HR monitor, he had a HR of about 170-180 at a trot. He was about the same when asked for a normal canter. The rider was very concerned, and got the horse to start pacing, and the HR dropped to 120-130 range, and was similar at his lateral canter and running walk. He only performs the running walk at the start of the ride when he's excited. All the values were pretty consistent. Because of this, even though I wasn't keen on the idea (but a HR that high and that consistent is rather alarming), he pushed the horse to stay in a pace for the duration of the ride. He was pulled at 40 miles for a 16/18 CRI. Took a long time for the pulse to drop to criteria. No lameness, no obvious problems, just the inverted CRI. 
>
> Three weeks later, I took him to another 50, which he completed. Did not have a monitor on him. His CRI at the first check was 13/12, at the second was 13/13. He looked great, no problems, and was drinking well (this horse is a poor eater, but was eating better than he normally does). We gaited the first 3ish miles, and trotted the rest of the time. Minimal pacing except for some tight single track. Very technical trail, more difficult than he's ever seen before, and a very tough first 50. Had lots of time on the last loop and could tell he was getting tired, so did about 30% trotting and the rest walking, having a nice chat with another rider through the loop. Had a CRI of 17/17 at the end but was given a completion as he looked fine. I'm not overly concerned about that since it was a tough trail and his first 50, and it wasn't inverted.
>
> I've ridden him at home some with a different monitor and i'm finding similar readings as before. Doesn't matter which diagonal i'm on, and if i put him in a small circle, it doesn't matter what direction I go. I can't for the life of me convince him to pace at home, so I'll have to wait and see on that end of things. At the trot, he starts out at 120-130, then after several minutes begins a steady climb to 170-180 and hangs there. If i ask him to walk or to stop, he plummets right back down to 60 fairly quickly.
>
> Any thoughts on this??
>
> My second one is the opposite end of the spectrum. He had never been ridden in a monitor until this weekend, and now that i've got one, i decided i'd see where he was at. This one is also a TWH, a little younger at 6y/o, and in better shape, as he was mentally more prepared for rides a lot sooner. He did 300+ LD miles last season (i think), and this season has done two 50s and one 75, and I'm planing on trying a 100 on him at the end of the month. Unlike the other horse, he performs a flat walk, running walk, and rack as well as a canter. Didn't do any cantering on him, as it's pretty fast, and we were riding slow with a friend, but I discovered that his HR rarely (at least that day) goes above 100. At his normal speed he does rides, a 7ish mph running walk, he was sometimes as low as 72 bpm. Do any of you other gaited horse riders see this with your horses, or is mine just a freak? No wonder he pulses down faster than my Arab!
>
> Kris
>
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