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Hello Mary,

Like others have said, a HRM is not a requirement but it is a nice 
tool with many good features. I have used many different monitors 
over the years. IMHO the very best beginners model is the Forerunner 
50. It can be purchased on Ebay for $40-55 with the watch and strap 
and ant+stick. It does not have gps. It does record the HR based on 
time and downloads the data directly to your computer into a program 
called Garmin Training Center. The program is free and you download 
it from the Garmin website.

I am currently using one on my horse. There are no wires and it is a 
very simple setup. The photos show how I installed the HRM strap to 
my cinch with SuperGlue. I have mounted the strap several different 
ways on different cinches and would be glad to give you some pointers 
for your particular cinch if you decide to try this FR50. I found it 
necessary to SuperGlue the joints on the strap where the flexible 
rubber parts attach to the hard plastic center piece.

I wet the general area where the HRM strap sits on the side of the 
horse before saddling up. It works even with a heavy winter coat as 
long as the area stays damp which it always does on my horse.

The watch displays the HR in very big numbers that are easy to read. 
It has a backlight for nighttime use. It has a bunch of other 
functions that could drive a person nuts but I just ignore them. I 
just want HR and it does that just great.

The software allows you to set 5 different HR zones. I find that 
feature very useful. It displays the amount of time that your horse's 
HR was in each zone. For training I use Tom Noll's strategy of "Low 
HR Training". http://www.aerc.org/HeartRateTraining.asp

Here are the zones I use.
1) 30-60 indicates the horse is fully recovered and resting
2) 61-99 very easy work usually just walking
3) 100-140 Low HR Training Zone mostly trotting
4) 141-180 hard work hills and fartleks
5) 181-200 max effort very short time only

When I look at the computer data I want to see the majority of the 
horse's HR time in zone 3. I adjust my route, hills and such to make 
that happen.

There are 2 more numbers from the software that I find very useful. 
The overall average HR for the entire training ride and the max HR 
for the ride. As my horse's condition improves I will see it in the 
average and max HR because they will be lower when compared to 
previous rides on the same route.








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