08/14/07 You gotta have heart

You gotta have heart, I'm Jeff Keane and I'll be right back to explain. Throughout history, it's been claimed that a horse with "heart" will pull through even in the toughest duties. Until recently this elusive quality was used mainly to describe personality and ability, but Becky's here to explain what science has uncovered. Well Jeff, thanks to the famous horse Secretariat who after autopsy was found to have a larger than average heart, weighing in at eighteen pounds of blood pumping muscle, we now know some horses have large hearts. Scientist's found Secretariats' high powered organ was more than double the typical horses heart which averages only 8 ½ pounds. This discovery sparked the interest of breeders and veterinarians alike who concluded that yes, you can you can actually breed for heart, size that is. An equine heart grows until horses are around four years old and can be enlarged a little with exercise. One common misconception is that larger horses come with a larger heart, but that's not true. Interestingly enough as with any other bred in qualities, heart does not guarantee you a hearty horse but if everything else should align just right, mind, conformation, and ability a larger than average heart may find you with a super horse. Turns out heart might be a little more than a mysterious quality great horses possesses. Well, Becky, looks like the problem would be  How to weigh the heart organ in a living horse. I'm Jeff Keane.