Training And Injuries: Preliminaries

Launching right in, a few definitions to establish some basic parameters:

Training: moving a horse forward, improving the athlete. Intrinsic in this, injury prevention. I've yet to see a better definition than the late Tom Ivers' "Preserve and Enhance". Training includes racing.

Trainer: do we give this title to everyone with a license? Is one deserving of the rank pontificating answers or asking questions? Mull this over the next time you meet one that knows everything there is to know about horses. Consider also the trainer as a "cause" when we're talking about cause and effect.

Injury: The Merriam Webster's definition: an act that damages or hurts. Specify that I'll be writing about physical injury, soft tissue and bone primarily to the limbs of the horse. To expand a bit, in athletes injury can be a process occurring over time or an instantaneous event or a combo.

I'll be dealing in the coming posts with "cause and effect". What causes injury? Can we indeed finger inappropriate training as a cause or are there other causes. Are injuries, including catastrophic ones simply part of the game, or are they preventable by certain "acts"? Let's define:

Cause: again, Merriam Webster: "something that brings about an effect or result" or "a person or thing that is the occasion of an action or state". In terms of injury I'd like to break it down, separate the elements, identify the variables. We discuss injury as a "process", an ongoing set of events that we may identify. Then, we may get to a solution, if there is one.

I'm considering how to proceed with this complex issue, and hope to have an answer next post.

Today's training:
3/28/07 Wed: Day 3: 5 x 2 riderless sprints. 10 under tack.
3/29/07 Thurs: 15 min under tack. First circles.
3/30/07 Fri: rained out.
3/31/07 Sat: Farm under water.
4/1/07: Day 3: Here's what we really did April 1. Revise the 6F out of the gate at PM slightly: with three off days from exercise, decided to put Art in the smaller running paddock with a companion and create some play. This resulted in a chasing scene, and despite alternate mud and dry spots (it was sunny and windy all day), both horses got in a good workout. Several short burst qualify this as a Burch Day 3 due to fast twitch work. Nob gave this report of the 5-7 minute tack work: I've yet to break a horse this young. The youngster has a nice temperment and is a sweet heart of a horse. At this point however, he still has a quick flash point and any fear may result in jumping in the air and dashing off. He's short, quick and fast, and hence in this sense very dangerous. Nob's fear is that while he's on the other horses present will go in the barn and the youngster follow them. The one time this occurred the helmeted Nob despite his best effort hit several beams with his helmet. This date, after Nob mounted two of the three oldsters headed right to the barn with one horse remaining. That horse also soon ended up in the barn. However, Art remained completely calm and Nob circled him in wide circles left and right. After 5-7 minutes of this Nob decided to avoid pressing his luck and ended it. Big break through today--walking in circles with all other horses out of sight.