Re: Fun with Fitness!!

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> My own observation is that how quickly a horse recovers to 60 ( or 64 ) is
> little indication of how "fit" the horse is and generally tells me more
> about any particular horse's underlying metabolism;

Gotta disagree with you here---excluding excitability factors, heart
rate is a response to oxygen demand from the tissues and organs.  The
horse with the most efficient oxygen delivery system (the most fit)
meets his demands and goes into "idle" quicker than the less
efficient/less fit horse, so rate of recovery *is* a good indication of
fitness.  Not the only factor, and as previously discussed, shouldn't be
the only parameter in judging fit to continue, but if one horse takes
takes ten minutes to drop from 180 bpm to 60 and another takes 30
seconds, odds are excellent that the 30 second horse is by far the
fitter animal.

Windy is obviously an exception to the rule, but even in her case, if
she recovered faster than another 13.3, excitable mare with a resting
rate of 52, I'd still say she was the fitter horse.

Merry Christmas!

Susan G