There are a couple of things to check.
I have a murmur. The doctor said that I should be able to do
everything I've always done, but not to get dehydrated as that would
make it worse.
It is possible that dehydration for your horse is
different than dehydration for others. That is, it takes less
sweating to cause a definate difference in performance than for most
horses. I would check and double check the electrolytes you are
giving your horse. Lynn Crespo posted a great discussion of what needs
to be in electrolytes a few months past. I'll send it to you directly.
Not only do you have to watch out that the horse doesn't loose too much
water, which is what the pinch test shows, but you have to watch how
much of the minerals and such are sweated out and used up.
I would do two checks of the heart. First do a resting test.
Second, find a place to exercise hard. If all you have is a corral,
ride in circles for a couple of hours. Get the heart rate up,
get the horse sweating (which is hard for a conditioned horse),
and then do the check again. I've found that most vets don't
quite understand endurance horses. They are used to seeing the
backyard type of horse. So you'll have to convince the vet that
your horse is in "condition". (When I took Pharalina in for a test,
the vet said to lunge her for 10 minutes and get her really sweated
up. Ha!)
-- Wendy\|/ /\ -O- /**\ /|\ /****\ /\ / \ /**\ Here there be dragons / /\ / \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\/\/\ /\ / / \ / \ / \/\/ \/ \ /\/ \/\ /\ /\/ / / \/ \ / / \/ /\ \ / \ \ / \/ / / \/ \/ \ / \ \ / / \/ \/\ \ / \ / / \ __/__/_______/___/__\___\__________________________________________________
Wendy Milner HPDesk: wendy_milner@hp4000 Training Development Engineer HP-UX: wendy@fc.hp.com Mail Stop 46 Telnet: 229-2182 3404 E. Harmony Rd. AT&T: (970) 229-2182 Fort Collins, CO, 80525 FAX: (970) 229-4292