Interesting discussion about pulse rates. I think that the CRI gives more
information for catching tired horses early. Why not demand that horses
have to meet a set CRI standard within 10 minutes of recovery if you are
trying to slow down people who are deliberately pushing their horses?
For the vast majority, who may be pushing their horses without realizing
it (And I have been there and done that) just having a 10 minute CRI
at every vet check and warning riders to slow down if the CRI is high
would probably be sufficient. I now will request a CRI, or do one myself,
if the vets are busy and CRI's are not part of the check; but beginners
as well as their horses can get caught up in the excitement of a ride,
and even monitoring the time to recover to 60 or 64 is not sufficient
to catch a horse that is starting to tire from an over-enthusiastic pace.
My horses have to be pretty tired or have other problems before they fail
to come down to criteria within a few minutes.
Teresa