Do you know, Horses have funny heart beats?
Horses commonly have rhythm disturbances in their hearts.
Compared to people, horses often function very well despite these abnormalities.
Horses have very large hearts with slow heart rate. This makes them more likely to form ‘Arrythmias’ or ‘Abnormal beats’.
A common and often normal rhythm disturbance: The heart skips a beat after every 3-4 pumps. This is heard with the stethoscope as a predictable moment of ‘silence’. A great way to decide if this is normal or not is to trot up your horse. Increasing the heart rate abolishes this rhythm disturbance in a normal horse.
A second common finding which is abnormal: The heart no longer beats in a predictable way. This is caused by Atrial Fibrillation. The top half of the heart is the control centre to organise when the heart will beat. Because the horses heart is large and beats slowly, the main control centre for synchronising the contraction of the heart can lose this organised control. As a result, the heart doesn’t beat in an organised way, and for each heart beat, less blood is pumped around the body. This causes exercise intolerance, but at low level exercise, there would be no symptoms.
Next time we see your horse, ask to have a listen to the heart beating.
Its very slow, and very cool 😉