Pulse
The average pulse is 28-45 beats per minute (bpm) in a mature horse, but it can reach more than 250 bpm during maximum exertion. Depending on cardiovascular fitness and the horses response to exercise, this drops significantly within 15–30 seconds after the horse stops galloping. A 2-year-old horse may have a slightly faster pulse, and a 2-4 week old foal normally has a pulse between 70-90 bpm. Heart rate may also increase when the horse is excited, overheated or suffering severe dehydration, has a fever, has an infection or septicemia, has experienced a great deal of blood loss, has advanced heart or lung disease, or is in shock. In these cases, the resting heart rate may be above 80 in an adult animal. When the heart rate is below 20, the horse may be hypothermic, or have pressure on the brain, heart disease, or collapsed circulation.
Read more about this topic: Circulatory System Of The Horse
Famous quotes containing the word pulse:
“While our pulse beats and we feel emotion, let us put off the business. Things will truly seem different to us when we have quieted and cooled down. It is passion that is in command at first, it is passion that speaks, it is not we ourselves.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Whoever has had the experience of the moral sentiment cannot choose but believe in unlimited power. Each pulse from that heart is an oath from the Most High. I know not what the word sublime means, if it be not the intimations, in this infant, of a terrific force.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If the pulse of his people shall beat calmly under this experiment, another and another will be tried till the measure of despotism be filled up.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)