Heart Rates and Trail Rides

Last weekend saw Jet on the trail for the first time in a month. A friend called on Saturday, excited because she'd just picked up a new horse trailer and she wanted to go for a ride. With Jet's galls healed up, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to get her back in gear. Darling rode Sandy, which was good because Jet did try to pull a few punches along the way. Thankfully, no rearing was involved and she did seem to enjoy herself.

Sandy was pokey, and he did sweat, but as usual he perked up when on the level, and coming down the hills Darling let him move out and trot to his heart's content. This was only the second time she'd been out on him, and the first time she'd done any trotting. She was amazed at how smooth he was and took advantage of every opportunity.

Earlier in the week I hauled Sandy up north a bit to a lovely little park which has trails that are level and easy to navigate. Since the vet clinic is on the way, I stopped to ask about heart rates. How high can a horse's heart go? Is 72 high? Or low? What about dropping back to resting rate?

I'd been concerned, as you may recall, that he wasn't recovering fast enough. Finding information online was difficult because he's doing a lot of climbing rather than speed work. The vet who was in the office put my mind to ease. Horses who are doing speed work can get their hearts going to 150-180! Endurance riders with very fit horses like to see their hearts back to 60 in four minutes.


Say what? 60? Not resting? No...not resting rate. And what's more, if you get down to 60 in ten minutes it's good for the average horse.

While up on the hills the other day I pushed him a bit more, making him walk out, and finally got him up to 80. He was back to 60 within 3 minutes the first time, but the second time he insisted something was out there and I could hear his heart elevating. Sure enough, a minute later a hiker came out of the trees with his two dogs. On the way home I found a nice stretch with a slight incline and asked for a brisk lope. When I climbed off the heart was going faster than I was prepared to count; this time it was down to 72 in one minute and in four back into the low 60s. So Sandy's ticker is good. I am now, however, obsessed with the whole heart rate thing!

The trail through the park was so lovely and made for a quick ride, so I brought Darling up the next day. She took the camera and I rode Jet so that you could be happy with a picture of us.

Jet did a lot of long trotting; she out trots Sandy's lope. Neither horse really broke much of a sweat, which was nice, and they were both at a resting rate (see, I am obsessed) when we got back to the trailer.

Who ordered this rain?

Come October, the trails that I've been riding are officially closed. I'd forgotten that when I rode Sandy up yesterday. Of course, it was the first day of rain in October and the trails are in better shape than they were a month ago during September's torrential downpours. Still...I'm not looking forward to having to stay on the logging roads.

Yesterday I had both my stethoscope and a stop watch along with me as I rode out. I took Sandy's pulse before leaving, not really sure I was doing it correctly, and got a reading of 42. It had been considerably lower last month while he was standing at the vet clinic, which I found odd, and hence I'm wondering if I got it right. I took it both prior to saddling and after, getting the same reading both times. Good enough for a base line, I decided, and headed out.

Upon climbing the first level, Sandy's sweating was considerably less than it's been the past few weeks. In fact, I'd say it was back to normal. I dismounted and checked his pulse. 72! Wow...that seems high. I waited a couple of minutes and took it again. 60. Dropping, but not very fast. Two more minutes, 54. Two more minutes, 48. Close enough, I decided, as he obviously was not laboring with his breathing (he'd been huffing just a bit more the last time), and we continued up.

Next level, his pulse was back up to 72. Five minutes later and I couldn't coax it any lower than 54. That seems high to me, but again, no heaving of the sides and he'd been moving out better than he had since the injury, so on I climbed and up we went. Same story at the top. 72 dropped within 1 minute to 60, but five minutes later and we were still at 54. He was greedily grabbing at what little grass there was and not at all stressed outwardly, so back on I climbed and down the hill we began towards home.

Our ride lasted 2 1/2 hours, much longer than I'd anticipated, although normally I wouldn't have had 15-20 minutes worth of stops along the way. Once at the bottom of the hill, I took Sandy around the flat, level tree farm. Despite him not getting as wet going up, he was not cooling down during our descent, something that was totally different than we've been experiencing and I hoped that a bit of lazy walking would remedy that. It didn't.

Upon arriving home, I let Sandy finish his beet pulp (something he'd started before we left) and again took his pulse. It was 54. I untacked and took it again 4 minutes later. 42. Perfect! Okay, so a little high, but the same as when we'd left and it'd come down in under 5 minutes, and that was good.

Today we were blessed with more rain and there was no way to tell if he was sweating or not. His pulse was low when we headed out at 36 on both checks. It dropped faster at the first level, too, and was down to 48 in four minutes. Less than two hours later we were home again, but I couldn't get his pulse to drop below 42. Ten minutes later he was at the same rate, so I gave up. I was wet, he was wet, and neither one of us wanted to be standing out there in the rain.

Tomorrow we'll give it another go.

Trick Pony

For some odd, unexplained reason I've decided that I must, at the age of 47, start taking risks that I never took as a child. Such as...hopping on the back of my trusty steed, no saddle, no bridle, and trotting around the pasture. At some point I must have fallen and hit my head because the following day I decided I needed to stand up in the saddle, despite my notoriously poor balance and weak knees.


Sandy and I have been for a handful of rides these past few weeks. I'm a little confused, however, as he's been sweating quite a bit; much more than he was prior to his eye injury. Before we could go all day. He was slow, but his breathing was never heavy and the only sweat was under his saddle. Now, however, we can't get more than ten minutes up the trail before his neck is wet. Fifteen minutes and his chest is soaked, he's wet from his ears down to his elbows, and even his muzzle is damp. He also seems to want to stop a lot more frequently, but then again, he's always been on the poky side, so that could just be normal.

I called the vet, who feels Sandy is too young to have gotten this much out of shape with such a short break, but that he's also too young for metabolic issues. His short term suggestion is to monitor the heart rate. So today I headed out with a stethoscope in hand...but then realized a watch with a second hand would probably have been in order. Oh, well. While I couldn't really get an accurate reading, I could certainly tell that his heart was pumping a lot harder on the way up than it had been before leaving, and I could also tell it was beginning to slow down after a few minutes of rest. But what I need is an exact count so that I know just how much it drops, and how quickly (or not) it's back to resting rate.

The sweating only happens when we climb. I rode in the arena for over an hour, and while most of that was just walking and jogging with very little loping, it still didn't cause the sweating that ten minutes on the hill causes. He also cools out and picks up the pace once we're off the hill, such as when we rode up to see Mt Baker a couple of weeks ago. He struggled going up, but once there he had no problems.

Something is up with my guy, but I'm at a loss as to what it is. The good Dr. Plotts has recommended taking it easy and gradually building back up. If things don't improve here in the next week or two, or if he seems to get worse (or the heart rate isn't dropping), then it's another trip to the clinic for some blood work.

In the meantime...it sure gives me an opportunity to perfect my trick riding!