Equine Heart Monitor

Veterinary, horse care, and training issues.

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tammysinnett
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Equine Heart Monitor

Postby tammysinnett » Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:43 pm

Has anyone dealt with monitoring heart rate when training ?what type of equipment do you use and have you found a good buy get the trick done at a low price?? We are looking been told that the girth monitor is the best...but wanted to hear input from those that use them...thankyou

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drewsbadboy
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Postby drewsbadboy » Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:51 am

I've used a girth heart monitor. It's helpful and I still use it periodically, mostly when I do interval training. The one I ordered came from the UK with a wristwatch. It was a little pricey, but a good tool. I haven't looked at any from here.

tbrace
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it

Postby tbrace » Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:38 pm

Interval training is an interesting issue. It is getting another life recently, - judging by the press.

However, Is there really any hard evidence that says it improves much? Can anyone name a really successful big time trainer who interval trains by the book?

Good trainers often reap the benefits of parts of I-T, without the expensive equipment like heart monitors. For example, many trainers gallop, breeze, back to a gallop in a given session, which is the crux of interval training.

We often hear, "in Europe they . . .do this or that", meaning interval training, but most European and English trainers will say that most of the good they do comes from galloping on long rolling terrain and not at tracks. Something quite different from interval training.

I know that followers believe it works miracles, but truly, if I-T made winners out of regular horses, or kept winners on the track significantly longer, everyone would be doing it.

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Postby ratherrapid » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:04 am


tbrace
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hr

Postby tbrace » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:35 am

Rather,

These studies at sites like this are quite typical of various training claims.

There is no reliable data, and if there is, e.g., the "Fit" article, the population of horses is too small to make anything of it, except an interesting story.

Hard data on large horse populations from controlled studies published in refereed medical journals is much, much different.

It is these kinds of data that is missing on interval training, etc.

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drewsbadboy
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Postby drewsbadboy » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:40 am

I like the idea of interval training, in the sense that it changes up the routine a little bit and is just a good tool in my opinion. That being said, I do NOT think that it is necessarily the best way to train horses. I like it because it offers another method to achieve fitness in people/horses (I use it with mostly my eventers and my hunter/jumpers). It would be interesting to see what it does with racehorses. I would think that done properly it would be helpful (but I certainly don't think it would take the place of traditional training methods). I do like the idea of using a heart monitor periodically to see how my horse is physically handling the exercise (it's just an easier, more accurate way to check heart rate than the old fashioned way :) ).

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Postby ratherrapid » Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:02 pm

tbrace that site is run by Bill Pressey who I believe sells heart rate monitors for anyone interested.

i'd say intervals come in all stripes. Tom Ivers type intervals I've been through twice. You'll have an extremely good race horse out of that, but it takes maybe more time than necessary. Preston Burch type training works quite well also imo.

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Postby Shammy Davis » Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:27 pm


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Postby Shammy Davis » Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:34 pm