To check a horse's heart rate, press a stethoscope into the rib spaces low on the left side just behind the elbow, count each "lub-dub" as one beat, and count for 30 seconds then double it. Without a stethoscope, use the facial artery under the jaw. The normal resting range for an adult horse is 28 to 44 beats per minute, as reported by the American Association of Equine Practitioners. The hard part is not finding the beat. It is that a horse who is fidgeting, curious, anxious, or freshly walked in is not resting, so the number you get is not a resting heart rate at all. This article is about fixing that.
Heart rate is the vital that owners get wrong most often, which is why it has its own page. The full procedure for temperature, respiration, and gum checks is in how to take horse vital signs, and the reference ranges and the method for building your horse's own baseline are in horse vital signs and the normal range.
The three places to find it
Briefly, because this part is well covered and is not where owners actually struggle.
| Site | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Left chest, with a stethoscope | Low on the left side, just behind the elbow, pushed up into the rib spaces behind the mass of the triceps | The most reliable. Extension guidance stresses pushing into the rib spaces, since resting the stethoscope on muscle is why most people hear nothing |
| Facial artery, by hand | Crossing the bottom edge of the jawbone, in a shallow groove beneath the last cheek tooth | Use the flats of two fingers, never the thumb. Light pressure. Too hard and you flatten the artery |
| Transverse facial artery, by hand | Just below and behind the eye | An alternative when the jaw site is awkward |
Each complete lub-dub is one beat. Counting the lub and the dub separately is the single most common reason an owner reports a calm horse at 70.
Why your number is high
If every reading you take comes out at the top of the range or above it, the most likely explanation is not that your horse has a fast heart. It is that you are measuring the wrong state. A horse's heart rate responds quickly to almost everything:
- Movement. Being walked in from turnout, or even a few steps across the stall.
- Anticipation. The feed cart, the sound of a grain scoop, the barn door.
- Novelty. A stranger in the aisle, a stethoscope he has never seen, you crouching in an unusual position next to his elbow.
- Anxiety. A horse alone in a barn whose companions have gone out.
- Heat and humidity. Thermoregulation costs cardiac output.
- Dehydration.
- Pain, from any source, including sources you cannot see.
- Late pregnancy.
- Recent work, for longer afterward than most owners assume.
Notice that the first four are things you caused by walking up to him with a stethoscope. That is the core of the problem, and it is solvable.
The protocol for a resting reading you can trust
Measure before you do anything else. This is the whole trick. Take the heart rate as the first act of the visit, before the halter, before the feed, before grooming, before you have moved him. If he is standing quietly in his stall or paddock, that is the reading you want, and every minute of activity you add before you measure makes the number less useful.
The full protocol:
- Approach quietly and normally. Do not make it an event. Talk to him the way you always do.
- Give him several minutes of quiet standing if he has just moved or has just been disturbed. Horses vary widely in how long they take to settle, and honest guidance here is to watch the horse rather than trust a fixed number of minutes. A horse who has stopped looking around, has dropped his head, and has gone back to whatever he was doing is settled. One with his ears locked on you is not.
- Have the stethoscope already in your ears before you get to his side, so you are not fiddling next to him.
- Count 30 seconds, not 15. Fifteen seconds multiplied by four turns one miscount into four beats per minute. Thirty seconds halves that error, and it also gives you time to notice whether the rhythm is even.
- Take three readings, a few minutes apart, in the same session.
- Use the lowest repeatable one as the resting figure. Not the average. The lowest number he settles to is the closest thing to his true resting rate, provided you can get it twice.
- Write down the conditions: time of day, weather, what he had been doing in the last hour, and whether anything unusual was happening in the barn.
- Repeat across five to seven quiet days to build a band rather than a number. That method is described in full in the normal range and baseline article.
Practice on a healthy, relaxed horse. The worst possible time to learn where the beat is, and how long your horse takes to settle, is the night something is wrong. If you have a new horse, the first two weeks is exactly the window for this.
One thing not to do: do not chase a lower number by taking readings over and over until you get one you like. That is not measurement, it is selection. Three readings, the lowest repeatable one, and stop.
When the rate will not come down, that is the finding
This is the part that matters most, and it inverts the whole problem.
If you have followed the protocol, the horse is standing quietly, nothing is happening in the barn, and the heart rate stays substantially elevated over repeated readings several minutes apart, stop treating that as a failed measurement. A resting heart rate that will not settle in a calm, undisturbed horse is a clinical finding, and the most common thing behind it is pain.
The published context, cited: veterinarians commonly use a resting heart rate above 50 beats per minute as a threshold for concern when assessing a horse with colic, and the Merck Veterinary Manual notes that horses with a high heart rate have a decreased chance of survival in colic cases. In the primary-assessment literature, heart rate and gut sounds were among the most useful parameters for distinguishing critical from non-critical abdominal pain. That is why the number carries weight on a phone call.
Call your veterinarian, without waiting, if:
- The resting heart rate stays substantially above your horse's baseline in a calm, standing horse across repeated readings
- The rate is elevated together with any colic behavior: pawing, flank watching, rolling, repeatedly lying down and getting up, or not passing manure
- The rate is elevated together with dark, brick, purple, or very pale gums, or a capillary refill noticeably longer than about two seconds
- The rate is elevated together with a fever, dullness, or loss of appetite
- The rhythm is markedly irregular, or you hear beats that seem to drop out, in a horse who is unwell in himself
- The horse is a late-term mare showing colic-like signs. Distinguishing that from pre-foaling restlessness is genuinely hard, and why you often cannot tell covers what it looks like
One honest caveat, so this does not frighten anyone unnecessarily: some healthy, fit horses at rest have irregular-sounding heart rhythms that a veterinarian would consider normal, and they typically disappear as soon as the horse moves. An irregular rhythm in a bright, comfortable, eating horse is a question for your next routine visit. An irregular rhythm in a horse who feels bad is a question for today.
Nothing on this page is a treatment instruction. This site is written by a horse owner, not a veterinarian. The only actions here are measure, record, and call.
Read the trend, not the number
A single heart rate is a snapshot with almost no context. What a veterinarian can actually use is a direction.
Take a reading, wait ten or fifteen minutes without disturbing the horse, and take another. Then say which way it is going. "He was 52 twenty minutes ago and he is 60 now" is a far more useful sentence than "his heart rate is 60," and it is the sort of detail that changes how urgently a vet responds.
The same applies to recovery after work. A horse's heart rate climbs during exercise and comes back down afterward, and how quickly it comes down is a rough index of fitness and of how hard that work actually was for him. Comparing his recovery this month with his recovery last month, under similar conditions, tells you something. Comparing your horse's recovery with a number from the internet tells you nothing, because the conditions, the work, the footing, and the weather are all different.
What a heart rate cannot tell you
It cannot tell you what is wrong. It tells you that something is demanding more of the horse than usual, which could be pain, fever, dehydration, excitement, heat, or the fact that you walked in wearing a different coat.
It also cannot rule anything out. A horse can be seriously unwell with a heart rate inside the normal range, particularly early on. If the number is fine and your instinct says otherwise, call anyway and say so. "His vitals are normal and he is not himself" is a legitimate reason to ask a veterinarian to look at a horse.
FAQ
What is a normal resting heart rate for a horse?
28 to 44 beats per minute for an adult horse at rest, as reported by the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Individual horses vary within and slightly outside that, with fit horses often lower and ponies often higher, which is why an individual baseline is worth more than the range.
How do I get a resting heart rate if my horse will not stand still?
Measure first, before you halter, feed, groom, or move him. Let him settle until he stops attending to you. Count 30 seconds rather than 15. Take three readings a few minutes apart and use the lowest one you can repeat.
My horse's heart rate is always high when I check it. Is he sick?
Usually the reading is measuring excitement rather than rest, so retest under quieter conditions with the protocol above. If it stays substantially elevated in a genuinely calm, standing horse across repeated readings, treat that as a finding and call your veterinarian.
Is one lub-dub one beat or two?
One. The complete lub-dub is a single heartbeat. Counting the two sounds separately roughly doubles the result and is the most common owner error.
At what heart rate should I call the vet?
There is no single universal number, which is why baselines matter. As context, veterinarians commonly treat a resting rate above 50 beats per minute as a threshold for concern when assessing colic. Any substantial, persistent rise above your own horse's baseline in a calm horse is a reason to call.
Sources consulted: American Association of Equine Practitioners (normal heart rate range); extension.org, "How to Check Your Horse's Heart Rate"; Penn State Extension, "How to Take Your Horse's Vital Signs"; University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine; Rutgers NJAES FS1262; Merck Veterinary Manual, colic in horses; published primary-assessment research on differentiating critical and non-critical equine colic cases. This site is written by a horse owner, not a veterinarian. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a dose, or a treatment instruction.