Conventional Training--The Bad

I continue to agonize over the Lukas exercise program in which after 20 years experience i see more to like than in former days when I thought the program completely inadequate and absurd.

Before making the point of these posts it is necessary again to take a close look at what Lukas in Ross Staaden's book says that his horses do, and what is born out by the actual Lukas exercise logs also contained in the book. I've posted this basic exercise pattern before, and the reader should note that Lukas says that he tinkers with this according to what he believes is necessary:

T G G G W G T W B W T G G W G G T Race W W W and repeat.

There are in the above 21 days 10 days of Walk or Trot. Lukas seems to have no rest days where he does nothing, though I suspect some of the Ws stand for a rest or off day. 10 days of Walk or Trot out of 21 seems to this old Ivers trainer like a lot of days of doing very little.

But, if you look at it the other way, there are out of the 21 days 14 days of Trot, Gallop, Breeze or Race. Let's compare the pattern with other styles of training:

Ivers: (R stands for Rest)
G G B R G G B R G G Race R R G G B R G G B R Ivers for 21 days has 15 days of track work
which is only one more day than Lukas

Preston Burch:
B R G B R G B R G B R G B R G Race R R G B R
Burch for 21 days has 13 days of track work just like Lukas, and might actually only have 10 or 11 depending on the strenousness of the breezes.

Thus, if we compare the percentage of days the horses see the race track, the Lukas program ranks right up with the others, and this is what now causes me to understand that Lukas does, as he states, give his horses a significant amount of "bottom" as he calls it, or as I call it, a base level of fitness. This basic fitness is supported by frequent racing for speed work.

So, RR on this second look at the Lukas program understood how Lukas won all that money. Why? In addition to his many other advantages besides his exercise program, that exercise program also is among the more strenuous you see at most tracks. I'm probably fairly accurate in surmising that 90% of conventional trainers do less in terms of track work with their horses than Lukas does.

BUT, please allow an additional pertinent observation about this Lukas exercise program where he always breezes slowly and gallops only 1.25 to 1.5 miles on gallop days at open gallop of :16-:18sec/f. I consider the Lukas program a MINIMAL exercise program. Translate to state that if you do less than Lukas you begin to have a soft horse BECAUSE the physiological factor of "DETRAINING" sets in.

I'd have to defend to Lukas my statement that he has a minimal program which i'll save for the next post. We're training later in the nice weather today.