Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi Alice :-) you can track your horses
condition ( and hopefully improvement) by doing the same loop/ride getting
home to the barn, hopping off and taking a pulse rate with your stethoscope
at regular intervals ( i.e 2 mins, 4, 6 10 15 etc...) if you did this once
a week under the same conditions you should see an improvement in the recovery
rates, I did that for two years when I was doing CTR's and LD rides , then
I got a HRM for my b-day :-);-) WAAAAAY easier, plus you can track your
horses heart rate all the time, it is very interesting to see what speed
your horse works best at, often I was surprised at how hard my horse was
working ( e,g a HR of 200 trotting through deep sand) - I think I pushed
my horse harder than if I didn't have one as I cold see that she was trotting
at 120 and knew then that we were safe to go faster, ( one thing I was
working on last year at the end of the season was working consistently
at 150, it just seemed so high as I usually work at 130 or under !:-) )
AND....................it is fun!!! I got a huge rush last week when we
went up our "training hill" , a month ago Miss.T ( my horse and
love of my life :-)) was going up this hill at about 195 ...it is a km
long, we go up it and walk down it and go up it  3 or 4 x, last week
she went up it at 165!! Whoohoo!! And her HR dropped as soon as the "steep"part
levelled of , we were still going  up but not straight up, by the
time we got to the top her HR was in the 140's and dropped to below a 100
within a minute or two, yes, yes yes!!! It is good to know that all of
our hard work is paying off.:-)( I was clapping and war whooping like a
fool, luckily I ride during the day when there is no-one around,:-))
I think bottom line that a HRM isn't
necessary like proper fitting tack however it makes the "job"
of conditioning easier and more "factual".
Good luck & have fun!!:-)
Chrystal