Re: Do resting HRs change with excercise?

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> Hi guys
>
> I've been hearing conflicting information about the resting heart rate of
horses.  On the one hand : the resting heart rate of the horse will never
change, no matter how fit or unfit he is.  On the other hand : the fitter
the horse becomes, the lower his resting heart rate.
>
> Which is true?


When we were conditioning unfit Arabs on the treadmill, we tracked
heartrates, including resting.  Not all, but most of the horses had a
decrease of a few beats in the RHR as they got fitter.  Those that had an
unfit RHR in the 40-48 range dropped maybe 4-6 bpms, and those that already
had a fairly low RHR maybe only dropped 2 or 3 beats per minute.  Two horses
in the group had unfit RHRs of less than 30 and I don't think their fit RHR
changed at all.

JME.  Hope this helps.

Susan G