Your Horse's Heart: Equine Heart Rate and Rhythm Studies

by Fran Jurga | 27 October 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

How much do you know about your horse's heart? Not much, probably. It works--but did you know that the horse's heart is one of the most amazing among all the mammal species?

I always remember people saying that Secretariat's heart was massively larger than that of a normal horse, and that the heart of the great New Zealand runner Phar Lap is preserved in a museum somewhere and people still come to look at it.

But if you own a racehorse or an eventer or an endurance horse, you're probably acutely aware of your horse's cardiovascular system and with the use of heart-rate monitors to keep up with how and when in the exercise or competition cycle your horse is putting his or her heart to full capacity use.

The recent deaths of so many event horses because of cardiopulmonary failure is reason alone to want to know more about how the heart works under stress.







These two videos are from my "greatest hits" album on YouTube.com; they comprise a short documentary made by Ontario Veterinary College last year on their latest research and clinical efforts to improve understanding and care of the horse's heart.

I hope you will watch it and keep an eye out for lots more information about how the horse's heart works, both at rest and under stress. Much of the information is new and all of it adds to our body of knowledge to take better care of our horses, by knowing them better from the start.

Thanks to Ontario Veterinary College for making these videos available to share with you.

UC Davis Husband-Wife Vet Team Will Serve at Olympics' Equine Hospital

UC Davis' husband-and-wife veterinary team of Jack Snyder and Sharon Spier are headed for Hong Kong, where they will coordinate medical and surgical aspects of the equine veterinary facility for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The pair has served at the summer games since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea.

Snyder and Spier, both professors in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will join an international corps of 30 "staff" veterinarians, who will advise the "team" veterinarians accompanying the horses. They will be prepared to evaluate lameness, treat injuries and even perform emergency surgeries. Snyder will be in charge of surgical procedures while Spier, an internal medicine specialist, will deal with infections and internal diseases.

Because the horses cannot leave the Olympic compound for medical treatment once the games begin, a full equine clinic, complete with a pharmacy, must be provided. This specially built veterinary facility is located at the core equestrian venue at Sha Tin, next to the Hong Kong Jockey Club racetrack and close to the city center.

In addition, a temporary veterinary clinic will be located 35 minutes away at the Beas River venue for the cross-country event.

There will be six veterinary teams located on the cross-country course along with three roving teams and mobile cooling units. Eight horse ambulances and four recovery trailers will be available on the day of the cross-country event.