RR Injury Stats: Startling Conclusion
Looking at injuries in my stable leads to a few memories and some thoughts.
We've had a high volume of training and very few races, around 40 I'm supposing. Though the races have come in closely spaced clusters--when a horse is ready I really do race it continually--the goal of a consistent season beyond 5 or 6 races for any one horse remains ever elusive over 20 years.
Though we've had few injuries, I want to avoid the impression we were completely without problems. Strenuous training produces a string of constant justifiable concerns that come to fruition in various forms. Cannon bone heat, fetlock heat, bleeding, that inexplicable limp--numerous have been the times we've backed off from these sorts of symptoms. As I related, the only horse of mine that has been essentially symptomless through hard racing and training has been the Northern Baby horse Aylward.
The next observation is that the few injuries we have had were devastating. The stupid mistake with the talented filly Windy Lea essentially scotched most of my early efforts. After that I was down to one raceable horse. A humongous effort of time and money in 97-98 ended in a fractured splint and developing saucer fracture and no purses to support continuing. My Bones in 2000 was ready for big stuff before the bowed tendon. And, the most absurd of all, that one moment of walking to the gate instead of warming up in 2000 ruining a life time effort to date with Groovin'Wind.
And, we put in a lot of hours training over the years without any injuries at all. And, yet, it's fairly easy to avoid injury when you're running on pasture, wood chips, or manure,which a lot of this was. My success in avoiding injury in training proves really very little.
Thus, for myself, our training methods and my stable, the "injury" test really is yet to come. After I put together an injury free consistent season with a horse, then I can brag about injury free training.
That's enough for one post. I never got to the startling conclusion and several other thoughts that I'll save for tomorrow.
Training:
1/20/07: rest due to mud.
1/21/07: 7 min. riderless in deep mud and some nice tack work.
1/22/07: Day 3: sometimes things just go so exactly as you plan that you just have to smile, and today was such a day. The horses pretty much on their own in riderless paddock galloped over very wet but drier ground did several heats of 1-1.5f speed work. Enough to get us back on track and qualify as a Burch Day 3 (speed day). The spleens were emptied and fast twitch restored from de-training. And, then day 4 of tack work in open space went as well as it could. The little fellow Art now responds to right and left turn, and halt. But the command walk seems a challenge with every riding aid failing. So, Nob invents a new one by waiving his crop at another horse. When that horse walks so will our little fellow. Nice progress today.
We've had a high volume of training and very few races, around 40 I'm supposing. Though the races have come in closely spaced clusters--when a horse is ready I really do race it continually--the goal of a consistent season beyond 5 or 6 races for any one horse remains ever elusive over 20 years.
Though we've had few injuries, I want to avoid the impression we were completely without problems. Strenuous training produces a string of constant justifiable concerns that come to fruition in various forms. Cannon bone heat, fetlock heat, bleeding, that inexplicable limp--numerous have been the times we've backed off from these sorts of symptoms. As I related, the only horse of mine that has been essentially symptomless through hard racing and training has been the Northern Baby horse Aylward.
The next observation is that the few injuries we have had were devastating. The stupid mistake with the talented filly Windy Lea essentially scotched most of my early efforts. After that I was down to one raceable horse. A humongous effort of time and money in 97-98 ended in a fractured splint and developing saucer fracture and no purses to support continuing. My Bones in 2000 was ready for big stuff before the bowed tendon. And, the most absurd of all, that one moment of walking to the gate instead of warming up in 2000 ruining a life time effort to date with Groovin'Wind.
And, we put in a lot of hours training over the years without any injuries at all. And, yet, it's fairly easy to avoid injury when you're running on pasture, wood chips, or manure,which a lot of this was. My success in avoiding injury in training proves really very little.
Thus, for myself, our training methods and my stable, the "injury" test really is yet to come. After I put together an injury free consistent season with a horse, then I can brag about injury free training.
That's enough for one post. I never got to the startling conclusion and several other thoughts that I'll save for tomorrow.
Training:
1/20/07: rest due to mud.
1/21/07: 7 min. riderless in deep mud and some nice tack work.
1/22/07: Day 3: sometimes things just go so exactly as you plan that you just have to smile, and today was such a day. The horses pretty much on their own in riderless paddock galloped over very wet but drier ground did several heats of 1-1.5f speed work. Enough to get us back on track and qualify as a Burch Day 3 (speed day). The spleens were emptied and fast twitch restored from de-training. And, then day 4 of tack work in open space went as well as it could. The little fellow Art now responds to right and left turn, and halt. But the command walk seems a challenge with every riding aid failing. So, Nob invents a new one by waiving his crop at another horse. When that horse walks so will our little fellow. Nice progress today.
posted by rather rapid at
7:26 PM
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