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[RC] Hard and fast HRM Numbers (was: What is a "reasonable pace?") - k s swigart

Don Huston said:


The 160 heart rate while trotting is high and indicates
you are indeed riding a green horse but over the next
6-12 months it should come down to 110+/-. I would
not keep trotting at 160, 140 is my limit.


These numbers that he provide are a "rule of thumb" and may not apply to
individual horses.

The well conditioned, experienced endurance pony that I rode in the
Duck's 75 mile ride at Cold Springs this weekend trotted along for miles
at a time (speed was 11.7 mph according to Michelle Roush's GPS) with a
HR of 170+.  She WALKS at somewhere around 110+/-.  She doesn't go
anaerobic until somewhere around 185. If I saw it said 140 on the HRM
while we were trotting this would be either because we were going down
hill or there was something wrong with the HRM.

On the other hand, my TB endurance horse canters along at ~18 MPH with a
HR of 95+/-, and she is nowhere near as fit as the pony above.

Her not yet endurance horse evil twin TB canters UPHILL with a HR of
110+/-, and this one is nowhere near as fit at the TB above.

Don't put too much stock in comparing the numbers that come out of a HRM
to what is normal for other horses.  If you are going to use a HRM for
conditioning (rather that just for its entertainment value, which is
what I use it for), you are going to have to get some idea of what is
normal for your individual horse.

All that said, going out and doing 9-10 miles in 2 1/2 hours (assuming
this doesn't include lots of hill work) isn't doing any cardiovascular
conditioning at all.  So for the original horse, a HR of 160 while
trotting probably is an indication that the horse isn't very
cardiovascularly fit.  But not because of the HR itself, but because if
the horse is only doing 9-10 miles at a time in 2 1/2 hours, it isn't
doing any work to improve its cardiovascular fitness.  To do this, you
have to introduce either hills or speed.

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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