Well your friend acknowledges that in
order to get a pulse during riding a monitor is useful. The problem with
the other points is that it requires a horse to stand still for a minimum of 15
seconds to get a pulse. Most of the time you need to wait for 30 seconds
and sometimes a couple of minutes for a horse to settle down. It is much
easier to keep a stethoscope on the chest wall than many of the other places
that you can feel a pulse by hand. If the heart rate is low, like at the
initial vet in (36 or less sometimes) the scope is really helpful. We are
in a competition and use the pulse as critera for moving on through the vet
check and hold time. We need to be able to be accurate quickly.
Adam
Jannelle Wilde & Adam Falk
584 Romie Howard Rd.
Yoncalla OR 97499
541-849-2460
866-241-1531 (toll-free)
www.mfarm.org & www.wildeivey.com
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Alice Yovich Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 12:35
PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] heart rate monitor
In
the ongoing discussion with my friend who seems to think that we’re just
being lazy or liking nice gadgets, I forwarded your comments and she wrote the
following:
There are several places to get a pulse
point, (under the jawbone, behind the elbow, and side of the foot) most of
which you can't reach while riding, so if what you want is to get it
while the horse is moving, then a monitor is a good idea.
I told her that I didn’t think that
getting a pulse (standing or moving) was as easy as she makes it out to be, or
we wouldn’t be using stethoscopes to take the HR. If it were as easy as
she’s trying to make it sound why wouldn’t we all just use the
pulse points to take their pulses? I can personally feel the one under the jaw
pretty well, but it’s still kind of tricky. Heck, sometimes it’s
hard to hear their hearts with a stethoscope.
