Got my heartrate monitor- how do i make it work?

[Desperado]

I got my heart rate monitor this morning, tried it on tonight, finally got it to work on me, couldnt make it work on my dog, took it up to try on one of the horses, saw the little heart thing flashing but no numbers coming up Do i need some gel to make it more conductive? would baby oil work?
Tasha

[fin]

The (human) one I have works better on damp skin, but it sounds like you need to figure out which buttons to press! Presumably the little flashing heart means it's counting OK. Did it come with an instruction manual?

[Karon]

You can use KY jelly to get a contact, it works best on damp skin and the jelly helps. Also you might need to clip some hair away to get a good contact - mine never worked in winter properly on my hair ball

[Stella]

I found mine worked if I sponged the area with water first & kept it wet. Er, but that was once I had spent what seemed like several hours sussing the $%$^%$ buttons out

[Jen]

We used to spit on ours, and that worked. Make sure you press it hard against the girth area to make a contact.

[Desperado]

arhh founf this thread again, put it in the wrong forum heading!

It works fine on me now, but still cant get it to work on the horses!
I bought some conductive gel today, ive wet it, ive spat on it, ive moved it around and still cant get it to work. Ive tried it on my clipped horses and one of my wooly ones.
I have a sensor dynamics heart rate monitor, the phoenix, apparently it was bought from raddery equine. Ive sussed the buttons, and it all worlks fone on people, the heart flashes to get the beat of the heart and then the numbers appear, with the horses the heart flashes occasioanlly but no numbers.

[calli]

where abouts are you trying to get the reading from?

If its the girth area try under the saddle area just behind the withers and to one side - roughly where you would often see muscle wastage from a bad fitting saddle......

[Jen]

Maybe your horse doesn't have a heart beat!!!

I must admit we had difficulty with a few of our horses finding their heart beat when we did the Fish Race the year before last, maybe they are thicker skinned....

[endurancenutter]

Hiya, just wondered if you were sorted with this? I have a Polar s610i, ride on monitor. Having used one through endurance, I tend to find that if you wet them really well (horse and monitor) before you start, the sweat the horse produces then keeps the contact.

Are yuo sure you have the sensors the right way round? Is the watch close enough to pick up the contact?

As to the sensors, I find one attacted to the near side girth just above the point of the elbow, and the other on the off side under where the rider's knee sits is about right.

I use mine with electrode gel, and never have a problem, but then I have a thin coated TB, even in winter he is not as wooly as some!!