Warming Up Da Bones

(Left click to enlarge illustration at left.)

When was the last time you heard a trainer talk about bone warm up? More likely you more familiar with the ridiculous scene in the illustration on the left or perhaps such incomprehensible stuff as Richard Mandella icing his horses pre-race in "On The Muscle".

The injury problem generally plagues thoroughbred racing, but catastrophic bone fractures perhaps threaten the existence of the sport as we know it. How many more Ruffians, Go For Wands, Barbaros or Pine Islands can this sport take and still survive?

Among the multiple contributory factors to bone soundness is the warm up process. In this post at the end I'll give a recitation of bone physiology to begin the discussion.

But, first, some real live guinea pig stuff. We breezed Aylward at the farm last night, and in view of these posts, I asked Nob the rider to give me a report. The exercise began with a continuous warm up 3f trot, 3f :18sec/f gallop changing leads, 2f trot to the starting point, 45 sec. walk and then on into the heats which were 3 x 2f at :13-13.5sec/f under 175 lbs rider and tack.

Aylward performed the three 2f breeze heats impressively. Nob described it roughly this way:
"The first heat, the horse was slow to get into it, he took off but he was choppy and inconsistent. Since it was heat #1 I was declining to drive him through it and just let him go. He was out of breath at the end, surprising because it was fairly slow."

"The second heat was the most energetic. The horse started well and smoothly drove through it all the way to the end and was barely out of breath at all at the conclusion. This heat was a lot of fun compared to the first where I thought the horse was struggling."

"Heat #3 was the fastest but I had to drive him to it and he was out of breath at the conclusion to the point of having a palate problem".

Please note the progression through the heats and how the horse fared. The horse struggled and was breathless at the conclusion in Heat #1 which demonstrates all the warm up processes including energy systems and cardiovasuclar efficiency still clicking in instead of already being there.

The horse performed best in Heat #2 which would actually be the third heat if you want to include the warm up as a heat. By the last heat the horse was tiring which speaks to where we are in conditioning.

We saw at the farm last night first hand how much more effective Aylward was in that second heat after having fully warmed up in Heat #1. The dangers to horses from insufficient warm up aside, from the performance aspect horses are physically unable to give their best effort without some preliminary speed work. When you consider this in its enormity, what a shame!

Now, back to the bones. Here is Steward G. Eidelson M.D.:

"The human skeleton is composed of 206 bones, 33 of which are located in the spine. Bones are long, flat, short or irregularly shaped, and some are thicker than others. Bones are flexible during youth, eventually becoming rigid at maturity. If a bone is broken, collagen which is manufactured by the body, mends the fracture. The new bone is then hardened through a process term calcification.

Bone is a living organ comparable to the heart or kidneys. It contains blood vessels and is nourished through circulation. If any bone or organ system is ignored or misused, it can decay and cause problems. Within bone are two compartments. The outer layer is termed cortical bone and the inner is cancellous bone. Microscopically, cortical bone looks like concentric rings. Cancellous bone resembles latticework and is spongy. A system of blood vessels supplies the bones with needed nutrition.

Bone serves as storehouse of minerals and fats. Approximately a quarter of a bone's weight is fluid. Minerals make up the remaining weight along with the other nutrients.

The semi soft center of the bone contains marrow. marrow is similar to a busy factory manufacturing red blood cells, which are necessary to adequately distribute oxygen throughout the body. In fact, each time the heart beats approximately10% of the blood is pumped into the skeletal system!

Throughout a person's lifetime, bone continuously beaks down and rebuilds itself. Some time after age 50, bone naturally begins to lose strength. This loss may progress due to decreased demands placed on the skeletal system."

Will go on with this, next post.

Training:
Art is still wearing the boot due to the abscess. Vet today, but, he may have been walking normally this morning. I was in a hurry.