Want to Use a Heart Rate Monitor But Not Sure Where to Start?

Want to train with a heart-rate monitor but not sure where to start? EN is here to help! Photo by Jenni Autry.

Are you interested in incorporating a heart-rate monitor into your horse’s training this season but not sure how to get started? While the prospect can seem daunting, it’s actually more simple than you might think. If you’re on the fence, a great place to start is by learning more about training with heart rate.

As a first-time heart-rate monitor user myself, I turned to the Hylofit website to learn more before I started using it, and I’ve compiled a resource guide of articles for those of you on the hunt for more information. The Hylofit system provides real-time heart-rate data directly to your phone or your trainer’s phone, which provides a way to see how the horse’s body is responding to work in the moment. Using Hylofit can help you answer questions like whether your horse is finding the work easier or harder than you expected.

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to use Hylofit is to see whether my perception of how hard my horse is working matched what the data actually shows. If a horse’s heart-rate is spiking during a simple trot or canter set, that could indicate a larger issue, or potential injury, is on the horizon. Using Hylofit gives you this insight and more.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Start Here

Why Should I Use Heart Rate Zones to Train With My Horse? How do heart rate monitors work? Why is it important to train with a heart rate monitor? How do you maximize training sessions with a heart rate monitor? Why is it important to know your horse’s resting heart rate? This article answers all these questions and more.

How Zone Training Can Transform Your Horse’s Fitness: If you missed this article on EN, we took an in-depth look at Hylofit’s zones, which use an algorithm to determine how hard your horse is working. The zones are color coded and numbered to make them easy to understand and use.

Required Reading

Dr. Tim Worden, a biomechanics advisor for Hylofit, specializes in the translation of human high-performance training theory and techniques to horses. He wrote a fantastic three part article series for Practical Horseman during the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games. All three parts are well worth the read.

Part 1: Producing a Top Horse

Part 2: The Art of the Deal

Part 3: Performance Enhancements

Key takeaway: “Similar to the fitness technology revolution in human athletes, horse activity monitors have the potential to unlock previously unknown training insights. This information can be used to help guide training as it provides a direct measure of how hard a horse worked on a given day, and subsequently, how they responded to that work.”

Using Hylofit

Easy setup: This video shows how easy it is to attach the heart-rate monitor to your horse’s girth and sync Hylofit to your phone. It’s a quick and simple process.

Rider alerts: Hylofit also launched rider alerts this month, which allow you to customize the heart rate, zone intensity, time and distance you want to achieve during a ride, and then a voice will alert you to when you hit those targets. Watch below for a demo. It’s definitely as cool as it sounds!

Click here to view more demo videos on Hylofit’s YouTube Channel. You can also follow along with other riders who are using heart rate to train on Hylofit’s Instagram.

Still looking for more information? There are a slew of testimonials, reports and educational articles on the Hylofit website. You can dive in here.

Are you ready to take the plunge into the world of training with heart rate? Click here to order Hylofit.