Injury Studies
Over my years in racing I've noticed studies here and there detailing various factors thought to contribute to racing injuries. I read about the studies instead of the studies themselves, and recollect primarily studies involving race track surfaces, toe grabs, and the Maryland Shin study. There have also been various track and regional statistical studies detailing injuries. Perhaps a short look at what's been done in terms of studies is a good place to start on relating injuries to cause.
1. Track Surfaces: I recall in the early nineties several statistical studies in England and USA identifying hard surfaces as producing significantly higher percentages of catastrophic injuries than grass or soft dirt surfaces. These simplistic and incomplete studies indicate what we may suppose, which is that racing on concrete may fracture bones due to excess concussion. There's a difference I'm guessing between an equine front leg at speed loading at 12,000 lbs per square inch on a hard surface as opposed to grass. Let's acknowledge, without a doubt, hard tracks worry me, and the longer the race the deeper the concern.
I have multiple problems with the track surface studies. They tell such a small part of the story, and omit entirely what may be the real substance of the problem which is the "cuppy track" both in morning training, and horses racing over tracks preceded by other horses. How many condylar and sesamoid fractures or chips are started, instigated and concluded by horses landing a bad way when the track looks like a sand version of an egg carton? When someone tells you the horse was killed by taking a bad step, might this be what they mean. As a galloper and exercise rider, I can relate the frightfuly uncomfortable experience of galloping during the late morning over an deep cuppy training surface created by the prior trainees, especially at speed. It's always a wonder how the horses survive it, and also is the reason given by Australian trainer Tommy Smith (33 premierships in a row) for his early training starts. Tommy had all his 60 horses breezed and gone before the other trainers arrived at the barn.
Horses get hurt regardless of surface, and personally I've grown sick and tired of trainers of injured horses blaming the track surface. Either there's a hole in the track, the track is too hard or the track is too soft, you name the trainer and the story, and that's other than to say that on occasion there's a legitimate beef.
I've had arguments with trainers over whether the track should be hard or soft. The trainers wanting a soft track point to fractures; the trainers desiring a hard track point to bowed tendons and other soft tissue injuries caused by too deep a surface.
The truth of the matter is that a trainer can construct his training to adjust for the track surface. Horses can be "conditioned" to either type of surface, and I consider taking note of the sort of surface your racing on as a major variable in the training equation.
Do hard tracks break bones. Undoubtedly they contribute to the risk probably geometrically with length of race. I dislike galloping on a hard surface and as I'm on the horse at speed in that adventure I'm tending to calculate my exit from the horse with every stride.
However, I also know that I've done Burch training on one of the hardest quarter horse tracks in the country at Eureka Downs, breezing 4 and 5 furlongs every three days under 150-155 lbs rider weight without any discernible problem. Please note this preceded about three months of conditioning the cannon bones to the track surface BEFORE the serious breezing began. I conditioned the horses to the surface.
Do I like a soft deep track or a harder track for injury prevention. Obviously the best sort of track is a happy medium, and I think that most of the major tracks long ago figured this out. Between hard and soft, soft is always better.
As to track surfaces, let's leave it that the surface may be a contributing problem to the injury factor, but that very few surfaces directly cause injuries IF the horse is conditioned to the track. Given the fairly decent nature of most surfaces that horses race on, the "track excuse" wears thin.
What I see when I read that X number of horses broke down in the first two weeks at Delmar, instead of a problem surface, is problem trainers and training who are using track excuse. But I'll readily admit this is a supposition on my part and that the true answer for me is unknown.
The toe grab studies, next post.
Today's training:
As it turns out, Art's right hind has a serious laceration to the hoof wall which we missed when we removed the twisted shoe in the dark the night before. There is a two inch long "break line" running parallel to the ground surface about midway up the hoof starting at the area of the "quarter" and running backward to the heal. I've seen a lot worse, and believe this area will keratonize quickly and we'll be in light training in a couple of days. But, unknown. The horse is very sore presently on this, but, I'm suspecting it's due to the swelling, which will go down. There's some coronary band involvement also which worries me long term, but, again, this is bad luck that could have been a lot worse. Obviously the little horse got his rear leg caught somewhere. It is a relief that the tendon and fetlock swelling that initially freaked me out when I saw it is due to a cut instead of a bow or suspensory.
1. Track Surfaces: I recall in the early nineties several statistical studies in England and USA identifying hard surfaces as producing significantly higher percentages of catastrophic injuries than grass or soft dirt surfaces. These simplistic and incomplete studies indicate what we may suppose, which is that racing on concrete may fracture bones due to excess concussion. There's a difference I'm guessing between an equine front leg at speed loading at 12,000 lbs per square inch on a hard surface as opposed to grass. Let's acknowledge, without a doubt, hard tracks worry me, and the longer the race the deeper the concern.
I have multiple problems with the track surface studies. They tell such a small part of the story, and omit entirely what may be the real substance of the problem which is the "cuppy track" both in morning training, and horses racing over tracks preceded by other horses. How many condylar and sesamoid fractures or chips are started, instigated and concluded by horses landing a bad way when the track looks like a sand version of an egg carton? When someone tells you the horse was killed by taking a bad step, might this be what they mean. As a galloper and exercise rider, I can relate the frightfuly uncomfortable experience of galloping during the late morning over an deep cuppy training surface created by the prior trainees, especially at speed. It's always a wonder how the horses survive it, and also is the reason given by Australian trainer Tommy Smith (33 premierships in a row) for his early training starts. Tommy had all his 60 horses breezed and gone before the other trainers arrived at the barn.
Horses get hurt regardless of surface, and personally I've grown sick and tired of trainers of injured horses blaming the track surface. Either there's a hole in the track, the track is too hard or the track is too soft, you name the trainer and the story, and that's other than to say that on occasion there's a legitimate beef.
I've had arguments with trainers over whether the track should be hard or soft. The trainers wanting a soft track point to fractures; the trainers desiring a hard track point to bowed tendons and other soft tissue injuries caused by too deep a surface.
The truth of the matter is that a trainer can construct his training to adjust for the track surface. Horses can be "conditioned" to either type of surface, and I consider taking note of the sort of surface your racing on as a major variable in the training equation.
Do hard tracks break bones. Undoubtedly they contribute to the risk probably geometrically with length of race. I dislike galloping on a hard surface and as I'm on the horse at speed in that adventure I'm tending to calculate my exit from the horse with every stride.
However, I also know that I've done Burch training on one of the hardest quarter horse tracks in the country at Eureka Downs, breezing 4 and 5 furlongs every three days under 150-155 lbs rider weight without any discernible problem. Please note this preceded about three months of conditioning the cannon bones to the track surface BEFORE the serious breezing began. I conditioned the horses to the surface.
Do I like a soft deep track or a harder track for injury prevention. Obviously the best sort of track is a happy medium, and I think that most of the major tracks long ago figured this out. Between hard and soft, soft is always better.
As to track surfaces, let's leave it that the surface may be a contributing problem to the injury factor, but that very few surfaces directly cause injuries IF the horse is conditioned to the track. Given the fairly decent nature of most surfaces that horses race on, the "track excuse" wears thin.
What I see when I read that X number of horses broke down in the first two weeks at Delmar, instead of a problem surface, is problem trainers and training who are using track excuse. But I'll readily admit this is a supposition on my part and that the true answer for me is unknown.
The toe grab studies, next post.
Today's training:
As it turns out, Art's right hind has a serious laceration to the hoof wall which we missed when we removed the twisted shoe in the dark the night before. There is a two inch long "break line" running parallel to the ground surface about midway up the hoof starting at the area of the "quarter" and running backward to the heal. I've seen a lot worse, and believe this area will keratonize quickly and we'll be in light training in a couple of days. But, unknown. The horse is very sore presently on this, but, I'm suspecting it's due to the swelling, which will go down. There's some coronary band involvement also which worries me long term, but, again, this is bad luck that could have been a lot worse. Obviously the little horse got his rear leg caught somewhere. It is a relief that the tendon and fetlock swelling that initially freaked me out when I saw it is due to a cut instead of a bow or suspensory.
posted by rather rapid at
7:56 AM
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2 Comments:
Question and comment; I have a friend who owns a racehorse here at Sam Houston Ractrack. He is three and has only raced here and nowhere else. The plan is to take him to Oaklawn Park or The Fairgrounds once the SHRP meet is over. He is only conditioned for the SHRP track. How long does it take for a horse to conditioned himself over a new surface? I was thinking about that when Hard Spun was moved from Oaklawn to Keenland. He didn't have too many workouts over the Keenland track before the Lanes End S. Now he is going to Churchill Downs to see if he can handle that track. How long does it take before a trainer really knows he can handle it?
LyndaP
Texas
Lynda--you anticipated my next post. The reason I've yet to post today, I'm having trouble putting this together-changing surfaces. It'll be up soon, and I'll give my opinion. It's a superb question. Sound like you know a little about race horses. Great seguay question for the blog. Txs. very much. All opinions always welcome!
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