Hello All,
Just out of curiousity do jockeys monitor the horse’s heart rate in races and adjust the pace accordingly?
http://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/equine-all.shtml
Main Features:
Heart rate, speed, distance, altitude, ascent, sport zones, R-R recording, display zoom, user replaceable battery.
Designed for endurance, eventing, galopp/throughbreds and jumping,/dressage.
Can we learn anything from horse trainers?
Cheers,
Neal
I just met someone who did “three day eventing” I don’t exactly remember what it was but there is an endurance event as part of it. Apparently some people use the heart rate monitors exactly in the manner you are talking about.
She said she tried it a couple of times and had problems with reception, keeping the strap on, and chafing from the strap. She gave up on it. Sounds like a lot of stories human athletes tell about hr monitor troubles.
I did Three day Eventing back in my previous life. We did not have HRMs for the horses back then, but I we did interval training and monitored heart rate and recovery by feel. I had some pretty fit Thoroughbreds and I got pretty fit right along with them.
I believe horse racing trainers also use heart rate when building fitness in their horses. I don’t think they would use them in a race however, for a couple of reasons. Horse racing (at least here in the US) is basically sprinting, not endurance racing. Its pretty much fast twitch and "pacing’ has more to do with the sprinting tactics and ability than the fitness level.
There is an Endurance sport with horses that they would definitely use HR monitors. The horses are monitored at check points and if they are stressed (HR, Temp, respiration) they cannot continue until they “recover”. I think Slowman is involved in this sport.