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[RC] Frank's comments - Bruce Weary

My Friend Frank,
Dang, I hate to disagree with any fellow Nebraskan, but the heart rate, while only a component of the entire vet exam, is "party central" because of how it's integrated into the rest of the horse's (or human's) physiology. The heart is influenced by so many factors in the exercising horse. First, a reduced oxygen supply will increase heart rate. As does exercise. Adrenaline lights it up like a Christmas tree. Fatigue will cause the heart to beat more shallowly, weakly, and with less blood output, which influences other target tissues. Dehydration will have a similar effect, as will loss of electrloytes. Hypoglcemia will decrease the heart's ability to pump efficiently. Increased ambient or body temperature will cause increased heart rate as it tries to cool itself. Pain drives the heart rate up--from lameness, colic, gas, girth galls, bad saddle fit. Anemia will increase the heart rate.
Fitness and deconditioning have opposite effects on cardiac efficiency. Any one or a combination of these factors can be imposed on an endurance horse, and the first easily detectable sign is---an elevated heart rate. So I look at the heart rate as "a ticket to the dance." It's not meaningful until the causes are traced, good or bad. Not too many horses crash and burn without the heart rate having a sayso. Any Vets on this one? DrQ



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