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Hello Mary,

Yes, LSD, and I find it is the perfect training for riding endurance 
under the "To Finish Is To Win" motto.

All my other HR monitors did not record the activity so to determine 
what his heart was doing I had to glance at them more. With a 
recorded track based on time I now also glance at the ET (Elapsed 
Time from when you pushed "start") when things change like climb a 
hill or sprint a nice open piece of trail and then I can roughly 
correlate HR with movement.

Someone mentioned erroneous 1/2 or 2x HR and that does happen but I 
found it was always caused by a loose cinch. I found that having an 
elastic cinch was a big plus because I can make it very snug but not 
restrict my horse nor cause galling. If I notice a high HR I tighten 
the cinch and it becomes normal again. I now know how tight the cinch 
has to be right from the start to maintain accurate HR.

I do not find that the monitor distracts me from enjoying riding. I 
actually find great satisfaction in working the horse for a while on 
a familiar route and thinking he is at 130-140 and checking the watch 
to see that I am correct. It confirms that I am learning how to rate 
my horse more accurately.

Like Kathleen said, knowing your horse's various normal working rates 
can often times stop a potential problem that is building and will 
for sure prevent you from over working your horse. One hot day the HR 
was 180-190 on a familiar route that should have been 140-150. I 
tightened the cinch, rode a bit and it stayed high so I got off and 
he was not interested in eating, his respiration stayed high and we 
were both sweating like pigs. Had I just guessed at his HR I would 
have been very wrong and continued on and who knows what might have 
happened. As it was, within 10mins he dropped into the 60's and 
started eating then after 15-20mins down into the 50's and seemed 
fine. It was a nice break that apparently he needed that day and even 
tho we were sweating in the sun the whole time he recovered fully and 
we went back to working in the heat and his HR stayed in his usual ranges.

Don Huston



At 07:22 AM 2/10/2010 Wednesday, Mary wrote:
> Now YOU make me interested in the use of a monitor--nothing like real
> information and real instruction.
>
> I coached x-country for a long time and run quite a bit, so I'm
> familiar with your ideas.  It sounds like your "low HR training zone"
> is what we called LSD or long-slow-distance.
>
> So, assuming one becomes familiar with one's horse's typical response
> to a given route or obstacle (hill), can one then ignore the thing
> until after each ride?
>
> I guess what I'm after is a fine blend of a simple system that gives
> one feedback but doesn't become a distraction from the joy of riding
> or from other signals one might need to notice such as gait and
> attitude.  I LOVE how you attached the thing right to the girth.  That
> removes one whole level of distraction.  I fear I might obsess on
> numbers if I have to pay attention forever to the monitor.  But your
> use of after-the-fact info seems really smart and appealing.
>
> Do you find that you can ignore the thing for the most part but still
> reap its benefits?
>
> Thank you very much for the photos.  I've been considering switching
> to a mohair girth--do you think one could still succeed in attaching
> the band that way--perhaps by sewing in a strip to which the moniter
> could be glued?
>
> Thank you very much for truly useful information!
>
> Mary K


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