Re: RC: heart rate - fit to continue criteria

[Truman Prevatt <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>]

Thank you Steph for the lead in.

This is what the speakers at the upcoming SERA (Southeast Endurance
Riders Association) are going to be talking about. The first talk is on
the roll of electrolytes in the endurance horse - the whys and hows -
given by an expert on the biochemistry of electrolytes.  The second is
going to be on metabolic problems and will have much information that
has been learned at the Biltmore the past couple of years which had the
type of problems you were talking about, Steph.

It is going to be on 22 Jan and the details are in the SERA newsletter.
Anyone interested in going but who doesn't get the newsletter, can
contact me privately for more information.

Truman

Steph Teeter wrote:

> My first response to Ti's statement that heart rate
> is not the best criteria was a gut level 'of course
> it is, we've been using it for year' . But I think
> there's something to it (disclaimer: no science here,
> just observation and opinion).
>
> I do think that heart rate - recovery, CRI, is one
> of our best tools to detect horses that are NOT fit
> to continue-  horses that are working beyond their
> cardiovascular ability, horses in pain or distress, etc.
>
> But, what about the horses that recover normally, have
> reasonable CRI's and then crash, or hit the wall? There
> are lots of  these cases out there. And I've seen horses
> that met the recovery criteria just fine, but were *tired* -
> dull eyes, lack of impulsion, etc.
>
> I realize recovery is just one of the parameters
> we use - gait, attitude, hydration,etc also come into play.
> But these other parameters are mostly 'eyeball',
> and the skill/experience of the ride vet plays a
> large part in catching horses that are in trouble,
> or will soon be.
>
> So - hypothetically speaking here - is there some other
> *measureable* criteria that would give a better indication
> of the horse's fitness to continue? Seems we can rule
> out blood glucose, since it doesn't present a predictable
> snapshot of muscle glycogen levels.  What about the
> level of muscle glycogen itself? Muscle enzymes?
>
> Again - this is purely hypothetical - I am not advocating
> taking blood or muscle tissue samples at vet checks!
>
> But, very often a horse will get into serious trouble,
> and the vets didn't see it coming. Everything 'looked'
> ok.
>
> So Tom, Beth, Sarah, Heidi, etc -  if we *could* look deeper,
> what do you think we should we be looking at.
>
> Steph
>
> (this feels like a very dangerous post ... please please
> please don't take this out of context or think that in
> any way I'm into 'riding by chemistry'. I'm just curious)
>

--
Truman Prevatt
Brooksville, FL

Mystic "The Horse from Hell" Storm
Buck's Mystic Karma
Rocket a.k.a. Mr. Misty
Jordy a.k.a. Bridger (when he is good)
Danson Flame - Hot Dog I'm healed and ready to go.

http://www.mrsl.com



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