Accuracy of a heart rate monitor for calculating heart rate variability parameters in exercising horses.
Authors: Frippiat Thibault, van Beckhoven Cees, Moyse Evelyne, Art Tatiana
Journal: Journal of equine veterinary science
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Heart Rate Monitor Accuracy for Equine Heart Rate Variability Assessment Heart rate variability (HRV) — the beat-to-beat fluctuations in cardiac rhythm — is increasingly recognised as a valuable marker of fitness, recovery, and autonomic nervous system function in horses, yet most HRV research relies on expensive telemetric electrocardiography equipment requiring technical expertise. Frippiat and colleagues compared simultaneous ECG and commercial heart rate monitor (HRM) recordings from 13 horses and ponies during 45+ minutes of normal training, calculating two key HRV parameters (standard deviation of R-R intervals [SDRR] and root mean square of successive differences [RMSSD]) from both systems at rest and during exercise. The HRM demonstrated excellent accuracy with mean differences below 0.47 milliseconds and correlation coefficients exceeding 0.999 for both parameters in all conditions, with individual horse characteristics (height, weight, body condition score) having no bearing on performance. For equine professionals seeking to incorporate HRV monitoring into training programmes and rehabilitation assessments, this research validates that accessible, user-friendly HRM devices can provide reliable autonomic nervous system data comparable to gold-standard ECG systems, substantially lowering the practical and financial barriers to HRV evaluation in field settings.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Heart rate monitors can reliably measure heart rate variability parameters (SDRR and RMSSD) in horses during rest and exercise, making them a practical tool for fitness monitoring without expensive ECG equipment
- •Owners can confidently use HRM devices for HRV assessment across different horse types and sizes without concern that individual characteristics will affect measurement accuracy
- •HRM-based HRV monitoring offers a non-invasive, accessible method for tracking exercise fitness and potentially identifying training-related stress or recovery in working horses
Key Findings
- •Heart rate monitor showed excellent agreement with ECG for calculating HRV parameters (correlation coefficient >0.999) in both resting and exercising horses
- •Mean differences between HRM and ECG systems were <0.47 ms for both SDRR and RMSSD parameters
- •Horse height, weight, and body condition score did not affect accuracy of HRM measurements
- •HRM devices provide a practical, user-friendly alternative to ECG for obtaining HRV parameters in field conditions