Ivers Postscript

i'd like the blog to contain some description of Tom Ivers training. It's technical. Though I plan Preston Burch training with Y, Ivers has influence on what I do. Bringing science to the race track- equine exercise physiology--is an appealing concept.

Ivers proposed training a yearling for the Derbyover a period of nine months prior to race #1 in three three month stages:

Stage I: work up to 6 miles per day slow gallop.

Stage II: 3 x 1 mile increasing speed gradually as you go to heats at 2 minute lick at the end.

Stage III: 3 x6f gradually to racing speed. The last two weeks your workout might look some like this:

heat 1: 6f in 1::19
heat 2: 6f in 1:15
heat 3: 6f in 1:12

there are rest periods between heats. Iver's proposed use of the heart monitor to determine lenght of rest and also to decide when to abort a workout.

Can it be done? See Iver's Tape "Interval Training the Thoroughbred" and watch the black filly go through the program. It is most interesting and entertaining. I put Jeckimba Bay through twice, the last time with Paul Feliciano, who broke Secretariat's maiden, as my rider. You have a heck of a race horse at the end, BUT, also some problems:

1. Each Stage has a goal but the horse reaches the goal only in the last couple of weeks. E.g. Stage III racing speed is reached in the last two weeks of the whole program. Similarly, the Stage II two minute licks are going on only in the last two weeks, and in Stage I your at 6 miles only that last two or three weeks. Rest of the time? Horse is only working up to it. I was concluding as I went, speedwork in this program is deficient.
2. This is a nine month program which takes 1.5 years. Stuff happens. Injury, ice on the track, weather. I recall an entire weekend chipping two inches of ice off the wood chip track piece by little piece just so we could keep going. Two weeks off for any reason means four weeks to catch up to were you were six weeks ago. Too much time! The thought begins to come to mind: if we just breezed for 1.5 yrs., what would we have.
3. Then there was the Maryland Shin Study on two year olds simply proved Ivers incorrect concerning his basic premise. Ivers believed you had to go slow first and work up and develop ligament and bone over time to avoid injury. The Maryland study concluded that speed work is necessary from day one because it is only speed that strenghtens tissue to the point of injury avoidance. Ivers was wrong, the Maryland study correct by my experience. The horse gets fitter faster and safer with speed from day one.

So, why bother to look at any of Iver's stuff at this point? Ivers was far more than a training program. Iver's aim was to bring science to the race track, both in training and every other aspect of horse care. Iver's books and tapes explore the available science behind such as feed, supplements, shoeing, riders, stride efficiency, diagnostics, injury prevention, etc. Ivers wished to rid the sport of it myths and old wive's tale, and identify both what works and what is best for the horse. As such, these tapes and books are invaluable and highly recommend. they are all great excepting the last, Fit Race Horse II which seems but a thrown together compilation. The best book was the "Racehorse Owner's Survival Manual". All the tapes are great.

I will add today's training after its done. I'm planning speed work under tack in the pasture: Breeze #II. We'll see how it goes.

Breeze II was cancelled. recognized fairly quickly on walking in that we would fail to get any sort of energy in the pasture today from the older boys. three days of 15 degrees with wind seems to have worn on the oldsters. maybe sleep patters were distrubed. the only one with energy today was Y. An interesting little fellow. He's up to 15'2.5" this date and starting to look like a real horse. we ran riderless for 10 min in still muddy paddock. a few spurts from Y.
idea today was to build in the coming good weather to some strenuous work later in the week.