To take a horse's vital signs you need a digital thermometer, a watch with a second hand, and ideally a stethoscope. Take the temperature rectally and hold the thermometer until it beeps, usually about 60 seconds. Take the pulse with a stethoscope pressed into the rib spaces behind the left elbow, counting each lub-dub as one beat. Count respiration by watching the flank rise and fall, one rise plus one fall being one breath. Then check gum color and capillary refill. The whole set takes about five minutes once you have done it a few times.
This is the procedure article. The numbers themselves, and how to work out what is normal for your individual horse, live in horse vital signs and the normal range. If the problem is that your horse will not stand still long enough to give you an honest resting figure, that is its own article: getting a resting heart rate on a horse who fidgets.
What you need
- A digital thermometer. Any veterinary or human digital thermometer works. Keep it in the barn, not the house.
- A length of string with a clip, tied to the end of the thermometer. Extension guidance recommends this so the thermometer can be clipped to the tail and cannot be lost inside the horse. It sounds like a joke. It is not.
- Lubricant. A small amount of petroleum jelly.
- A watch or phone with a second hand or timer. Not a mental count.
- A stethoscope. Inexpensive ones are entirely adequate for counting a heart rate and listening for gut sounds.
- Somewhere to write it down, at the time.
- A second person, at least for the first few attempts.
Temperature, step by step
- Have someone hold the horse, or tie him safely, in a familiar place.
- Tie a string with a clip to the end of the thermometer and clip it to the tail so it cannot disappear.
- Apply a small amount of petroleum jelly to the tip.
- Stand to the side of the hindquarters, never directly behind. Move the tail gently to one side.
- Insert the thermometer into the rectum, angled slightly so the tip sits against the rectal wall rather than in the middle of the passage.
- Hold it there. A digital thermometer typically needs about 60 seconds, and if you let go the horse will often push it out.
- Read it, write it down, clean the thermometer.
Adult horses sit at 99.5 to 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit, as reported by the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
Pulse, step by step
With a stethoscope, which is the easier and more reliable method:
- Stand at the horse's left shoulder.
- Place the stethoscope low on the chest, just behind the elbow, and push it up into the rib spaces behind the mass of the triceps muscle. Extension guidance is specific about pushing into the rib spaces rather than resting it on the muscle, because the muscle is what stops most people hearing anything.
- Listen for the "lub-dub." Each complete lub-dub is one beat, not two.
- Count beats for 15 seconds and multiply by four, or for 30 seconds and multiply by two.
Without a stethoscope, by hand:
- Find the facial artery, which crosses the bottom edge of the jawbone in a shallow groove beneath the last cheek tooth. It feels like a soft cord that rolls under your fingers.
- Use the flats of two fingers, index and middle or middle and ring. Never your thumb, which has its own pulse.
- Press gently. Too much pressure flattens the artery and you feel nothing.
- Count for 30 seconds and multiply by two.
The normal adult resting range is 28 to 44 beats per minute, per the AAEP.
Respiration, step by step
- Stand where you can see the horse's flank in profile, without touching him.
- Watch the flank rise and fall. One rise plus one fall is one breath.
- Count for 15 seconds and multiply by four, or count a full 30 or 60 seconds if the breathing is irregular.
If the flank is hard to read, watch the nostrils, or hold the back of your hand a short distance from a nostril and feel the exhalations. On a cold day you can often simply see the breath.
Published normal ranges for an adult horse at rest vary by source, commonly 8 to 16 breaths per minute.
Mucous membranes and capillary refill
- Lift the horse's upper lip.
- Look at the gum above the incisors. Normal is moist and pale pink.
- Press a thumb firmly against the gum for a couple of seconds until the spot blanches white.
- Release and count how long the color takes to come back. Under about two seconds is normal.
Do this on a healthy day, more than once, so you know what your own horse's gums usually look like. Color is a comparison, and you cannot compare against a photograph on a website.
Your reading is probably wrong if…
This is the section the step-by-step guides leave out, and it is where most owner readings actually go astray. Every item below produces a number that looks plausible and is not.
| What happened | What it does to the number | How to tell |
|---|---|---|
| You counted each "lub" and each "dub" as a beat | Doubles the heart rate. A calm horse "at 70" is usually a horse at 35 counted twice | Slow down and listen for the pause. Lub-dub, gap, lub-dub. That whole unit is one beat |
| The thermometer sat in manure rather than against the rectal wall | Reads falsely low | Angle the tip against the wall, and repeat if the reading is oddly low in a horse who seems fine |
| You took the reading right after bringing him in from turnout | Heart rate and respiration both inflated | Let him stand quietly for several minutes and take it again |
| The feed cart went past, or someone new walked into the barn | Heart rate inflated by anticipation or alarm, often substantially | Repeat when the barn is quiet |
| You counted the flank of a horse who was eating, sniffing the ground, or dozing | Respiration count is meaningless. Chewing and sniffing move the flank | Count only when he is standing still with his head up and not eating |
| Cold, wind, or heat and humidity | Respiration rises in heat as the horse sheds heat; shivering disrupts every count | Note the weather next to the number, always |
| You counted 15 seconds and multiplied by four | One miscounted beat becomes four beats per minute of error | For anything that matters, count a full 30 or 60 seconds |
| You took one reading and acted on it | No way to distinguish a real change from a moment | Two readings, ten minutes apart, before you conclude anything |
| You have no idea what this horse normally reads | The population range cannot tell you whether this horse has changed | Build a baseline on quiet days. See the normal-range article |
Safety: where to stand, and when not to do this at all
Taking vital signs puts you close to both ends of a large animal, usually while your attention is on a watch rather than on the horse. Treat it as a handling procedure, not a chore.
- Never stand directly behind a horse to take a temperature. Stand to one side of the hindquarters, close in rather than at kicking distance, with a hand on him so he knows where you are.
- Have someone hold him rather than working alone, especially the first several times, and especially when the horse is unwell. A horse that feels bad behaves differently from the horse you know.
- Do not tie a horse and then work at his hindquarters alone if he has any history of pulling back.
- Approach the head end for the facial artery from the side, not from directly in front, and be aware that a horse in pain may swing his head.
- Stop if he is genuinely fractious. A horse who will not tolerate a thermometer is telling you something, and forcing it risks a serious injury to you and gains you a number you could not trust anyway.
That last point deserves stating plainly, because most how-to articles will not: if you cannot safely get a reading, that is not a failure and it is not a reason to keep trying. Call your veterinarian, describe what you can see instead, and say clearly that you could not get vitals. Behavior, gum color, gut sounds, attitude, appetite, manure, and whether the horse will let you near him at all are real information. A vet would rather have an honest "he would not let me" than a number you fought for.
This is also why it is worth practicing on a healthy, relaxed horse. The time to learn where the facial artery is, and how your particular horse responds, is in the first two weeks after he arrives, not at 2am on the night he is in trouble.
What to do with the numbers
Write them down with the date, the time, the weather, and what the horse had been doing. That record is what turns a set of numbers into something a veterinarian can use.
An out-of-range or out-of-baseline reading means one thing on this site: call your veterinarian, and give them the numbers. This site is written by a horse owner, not a veterinarian, and nothing here is a diagnosis or a treatment. What a reading means, and what to do about it, is a clinical judgment.
Call without waiting if you find a fever with dullness or loss of appetite, a resting heart rate that stays high in a calm standing horse, absent gut sounds, colic behavior, gums that are dark, brick, purple, or very pale, a capillary refill noticeably longer than about two seconds, or breathing with visible effort at rest. A late-term mare showing colic-like signs is its own difficult case, covered in pre-foaling restlessness or colic.
FAQ
How do you take a horse's temperature?
Rectally, with a lubricated digital thermometer, clipped to the tail by a string so it cannot be lost. Stand to the side of the hindquarters, angle the tip against the rectal wall, and hold it in place until it beeps, typically about 60 seconds.
Where do you find a horse's pulse without a stethoscope?
The facial artery, which crosses the lower edge of the jawbone in a shallow groove beneath the last cheek tooth. Use the flats of two fingers, not your thumb, press gently, and count for 30 seconds then multiply by two.
Does one lub-dub count as one beat or two?
One. The complete lub-dub is a single heartbeat. Counting each sound separately is the most common reason owners report a heart rate roughly double the true figure.
How long should I count for?
Fifteen seconds multiplied by four is the standard shortcut, but it multiplies any miscount by four as well. When the number matters, count a full 30 or 60 seconds.
What if my horse will not let me take his temperature?
Stop. Do not fight a horse into it. Call your veterinarian, describe the behavior, gum color, appetite, manure, and attitude instead, and say plainly that you could not get a reading. That is useful information, not a failure.
Sources consulted: Penn State Extension, "How to Take Your Horse's Vital Signs"; University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, "How to Take Your Horse's Vital Signs"; UConn Extension, "Vital Signs: What They Mean and How to Take Them for Your Horse"; extension.org, "How to Check Your Horse's Heart Rate"; Rutgers NJAES FS1262; American Association of Equine Practitioners (normal ranges); Pony Club, "Taking Your Horse's Vital Signs". This site is written by a horse owner, not a veterinarian. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a dose, or a treatment instruction.