Heart Monitors and Colic Prevention?

[SCM1959]

I know endurance riders regularly ride with heart monitors on their horses.

I have a good friend who has a 27 year old TWH who is in very good condition. She rides him at least 3-4 times a week. She loves to take him to Hunter Paces where they ride Field Hunters and are usually in the ribbons.

Her horse gets very excited and wants to go go go at the Paces and just this past weekend, he began to colic once they were back at the trailer.

She is careful to walk him/cool him down but he still seems to get so worked up. He always wants to roll when they get finished and she allows him to do this. He will not drink from a bucket but prefers to wait until they get home which is usually about 3 hours past the finish time.

She is trying to figure out how to prevent him working himself up to the point of colic again.

I am wondering about a heart monitor. Do these monitors measure only heart rate or do they measure respirations, too?

My thinking is that perhaps she needs to know his resting heart and respirations rate. Then, when taking him out during the week, have him wear the heart monitor and see how his rates elevate and then also see how long it takes them to come back to normal.

On Hunter Pace Day, still wear the heart monitor and keep an eye on it, with the idea to bring him back to normal rates often. This past weekend, her horse was still so “up” even after walking and being sponged off back at the trailer that he was breathing in huge heaving pants and he could not settle at all. My thought is, during the ride, keep an eye on the heart and respiration rate and walk a lot to bring the rates back down.

Do you think the heart monitor would help? If so, does anyone have any recommendations for an easy to use one that my friend could buy?

On the water issue, I think she needs to figure out something he loves to drink. For example, another friend always gives her horse a 3 gallon bucket filled with weak gatorade-flavored water after a ride. He loves this! Another friend puts a little beet pulp into water for after long rides and her horse is licking the bucket clean. I am also thinking about soaked hay cubes for post ride vs. dry hay in a net.

Thanks for any advice!

SCM1959

[Flash44]

Getting worked up does not in itself cause colic. I’d check for ulcers, or something similar. There is more going on.

[Highflyer]

I agree that keeping his heart rate low is not going to prevent colic (and may not be possible anyway if he is a hot horse-- it could be as much excitement as exertion in which case being made to walk won’t help). Has he colicked before?

[SCM1959]

This horse has colicked before after exercise, after a regular, peaceful trail ride. This was about 2 years ago. So it might be that the Hunter Pace competition was not to blame, but he does get very focused and driven when he is out on the trail. He does not like other horses to pass him.

I will also add that his rider is a very Type A style of person and she always has a mission when she rides.

I was just thinking that if she would keep an eye on his heart and respirations so that she is more cognizant of how much they are (probably) elevated when he is at a competition, that it would not hurt and might be helpful. I think she should actually know this anyway, it is good information to have. I know there is a range that is normal, but she should know her own horse’s normal and then how is it during a regular trail ride and how long until it goes back. I think it would be a good comparison to have for the next time she does a Hunter Pace.

I was surprised that she did not have a stethoscope in her trailer kit. I don’t know much, but I do know that the very first thing my vet asks whenever I call about anything is heart rate and respirations. It would have been interesting to know how elevated these rates were, compared to totally at ease, for example out in his pasture. She did have a tube of Banamine and she gave him 5ccs right away.

I do think he needs a total workup, but I am not sure if she thinks that is necessary.

She always wants to “make a plan”. This is why I thought maybe she could start with keeping an eye on his heart rate and his respirations. I know that she thinks she cools him down sufficiently but I suspect she does not. I got thinking about endurance riders having to know how long it takes their horses to return to normal rates, and I believe eventers do the same after cross country.

I just have never known another horse to be always in such a lather and breathing so hard when a ride is done.

SCM1959

[gothedistance]

How many miles are these hunter paces? Most that I used to attend were at max 5-6 miles.

[Guilherme]

Do you really need a heart rate monitor to know your horse is getting “worked up?” If you had one what would you do differently to address the issue? Put another way, what does the heart monitor tell you that you can’t determine by eyeball or the laying on of hands on your horse? Indeed, with lots of horses (one of mine included) the very act of touching the horse has a calming effect.

Seems to me that this is one time when technology will tell you nothing you don’t already know and tell you nothing about how to address a problem.

This is very different, of course, from using a monitor under saddle where you might learn new stuff because your attention is shared between multiple “inputs.”

And I agree that it’s unlikely that an elevated heart rate is a cause of colic. It may be an effect of the what’s causing the colic and it may be something completely unrelated. God invented veterinarians for times like this!!!

G.

[SCM1959]

The paces are usually about 9-12 miles long, depending on location.

And I agree, I do not understand why she cannot tell that her horse is getting overworked. She has had him for a very long time. You would think she would notice something.

I think maybe it might be that his excitement/adrenaline about being out on the course overrides his exhaustion until it is over and then he begins to pant.

I just wondered if knowing these rates might give her some better insight into what might happen.

I definitely agree – a full veterinary workup. If my horse collapsed and rolled and panted and acted like hers did after the recent Hunter Pace, I would have had my vet on the phone immediately and would have been on his front lawn within the hour. Instead, she gave him banamine and then drove this long, long, long way home through stop and go traffic and just took him back to her boarding barn. The next day, she wanted one of us to go over there to check on him. She said she couldn’t go because she had breakfast company. ???

She has been asking all of us what we would have done, and what can she do to prevent this in the future. I had no idea and I have always wondered what the heart monitors were for in endurance.

You have all pretty much said the same thing I have thought all along … something else is going on for sure and a full work up by her vet should have been #1 on the list.

Thank you so much!

SCM1959

[Laurierace]

She has the cause and effect backwards. The horse does not colic because his heart rate is up, his heart rate is up because he is colicking. That is how I knew there was no hope for my horse last week as we gave him a dose and a half of dorm and torb and his heart rate was still 64.

[Equibrit]

Check for ulcers.
Check for large worm load.
Check feeding time.
Check what you fed.
Load up the water before leaving, and take home water with you.

Endurance riders use heart monitors because they are pulled for a bad recovery time. Unfit horse does not continue.

[gothedistance]

Ok. My 2 cents worth.

A HM will allow her to gauge what the heart is doing outside what she perceives externally. Given a chart with what the normal top end for a horse peaking at exercise (220-240 bpm) and with a check of what her horse’s normal resting pulse is (quietly standing in the stall - anywhere from the 20’s to the high 40’s), she can have a benchmark for what level the heart is working at any period of time.

Yes, too much excitement, and sustained elevated (upper tier) heart rate (hr) can cause disruption to the gastric system, and/or metabolic system and thus result in colic.

So…she needs to either keep the excitment and elevating hr to a minimum either by actively reducing that cause through judicious, knowledgeable riding, or by chemical means. A HRM will help her see when her horse’s heart is working too hard for the level of effort being out forth physically, and give her a target for when she needs to slow/calm the horse down.

Honestly, given the history you’ve detailed here, I would probably have her talk to her vet and get some ACE to try. If it gets rid of some of the anxiety and allows the horse to focus on the job rather than spaz out, it may be worth it. ACE also is a good prohibitor of excitment induced colic as well. A good quality endurance electrolyte will help, too.

If the horse doesn’t do well on ACE, and she can’t get the horse to focus on relaxing a bit when the HRM says so, then she’s gonna be spending a lot on colic medication.

[gothedistance]

Endurance riders use heart monitors because they are pulled for a bad recovery time.

Huh???

We use HRM throughout the entire ride to help gauge the level of effort the heart is putting out for what our horses are doing (climbing a mt trail, opening up a trot, slowing down without cause, etc). It’s a valuable tool for all phases of the ride, start to finish. Using it at vet checks - because it is marginally easier than using a stethoscope - is really only a tiny percentage of why it is worn on rides.

[SCM1959]

Gothedistance, thank you!

What you are saying is exactly what I was thinking … maybe if she could KNOW if his heart rate was too elevated for what they were doing, then she could immediately slow to a walk or do other calming, relaxing things to prevent her horse from getting so overwrought.

Can you tell me more about the use of a HRM throughout a ride? For example, if you see your horse’s heart rate become elevated after something strenuous, and then maybe it does not lower on its own, do you do something to make that happen? You have gone up or down a very steep grade and the HRM shows elevated heart rate. Then you are on the flat, trotting along. Would you expect the heart rate to lower? Do you know, as the rider of YOUR horse, what range of heart rate you expect to see during certain parts of your ride? And, if your horse’s heart stayed elevated after several minutes of non-taxing terrain, what would you do?

I think something along these lines is what I thought my friend might be able to learn about her horse. I know it is not a guarantee that he would not colic again, but it surely would not do any harm to learn this.

He is a very nice horse and he gives 1000% – it was very frightening and sad to see him in such a state.

I wanted to add … this horse is such a contrast to mine, who is able at a moment’s notice, to take a “chill pill”, cock his back leg and take 40 winks. We can be going along in his amazing TWH gait, his ears all pricked up and his tail held high … then we get to the midway point 5 minute hold and he is all “Oh, good, time for a short snooze!” When I lift the reins to let him know it is time to go again, he perks right up and off we go! My friend’s horse is always dancing around and he cannot be still! Lots of nervous energy. We always say he is a TWH/Arabian (although he is purebred TWH).

SCM1959

[Ghazzu]

a) is the horse properly conditioned before the event?

b) has the owner ever administered electrolytes during the event?