Burch Training: How's It Going?

After Sunday night's breezes we'd say "very well". The 12 yr. olds breezed 9 or 10 times in July with the best work coming on 7/29 when Aylward went 4 x 2.4f without rest between heats as fast as the farm track would allow(probably slightly sub :13s). The prior breeze, same sequence, Nob had reported Al was "flat", but Sunday's work was energetic. Stone cold legs afterward.

Groovin' Wind breezed a continuous 1 1/16 mile, which at the farm is a lot of 2 minute gallop with two 2.4 all out heats in the middle. Very nice work for Wind also!

But, what's this. Just as we're about to post what nice July with moderate temps, low humidity, well...ok, ground is a little hard from lack of rain... had to complain about something; there we are Monday night gathering in the horses for pre-work feeding and in the distance, to the RR consternation, a horse head is severly bobbing at the walk. It's Aylward. Looks like an abscess type bob, but, could be broken bone after that hard work yesterday. As they walk closer, I'm reminded of the below passage from Burch's book:

"Hilaleah, February 1951, workouts for Preakness winner Bold (Jimminy-Little Rebel x John P. Grier), trained by Preston Burch:

3 7 furlongs in 1:31

6 6 furlongs in 1:17 1/5

10 7 furlongs in 1:34

13 5 furlongs in 1:06 (3f in :37)

16 2f in :25

19 Because of bruised feet, Bold was shipped to Aiken. His shoes were pulled off and he was galloped up to about 2 miles a day, going the reverse way on the deep, 5f sandy training track. On March 19 he resumed breezing."

Bold died of a lightening strike in his paddock shortly after the Preakness. So much for the Jimminy line of horses.

Indeed, Al was diagnosed with a bruise in the heel area of both front feet, bitten by hard ground, and two breezes in four days right after shoeing. But, Tues. morn on Bute he was walking without a limp. Common sense dictates a couple of days off, we'll see.

Some morning photos:
Pre-horse: (left click to see the cute shot of the deer #5 at the right)Maybe I should race pigeons:
Last night's training: with 2 horses off we were looking an easy night, but as we're shoeing Art, this:

The damaged hoof from the springtime has grown down. Nothing to nail to on the right rear, and a big equilox job. We now have to rush to get it all in before dark:
Art:
7/28/07 Sat. Burch Day 3: 6 x 2f riderless at 85% speed + short walk under tack
7/29/07 Sun: Burch Day 1: Off
7/30/07 Mon. Burch Day 2 riderless 2 x 4f WU + 1 mile continuous at about :16/f + 10 min walk under tack.

The Whitney

The first race in a while to catch my attention was the Whitney yesterday as I'd skimmed pre-race prognostications in the blogs and noticed running, Lawyer Ron(photo), a horse I'd identified early as a "man among boys" type. Let's see--the RR brain spinning--best horse, best trainer, who wins the Whitney? That's how you get lucky when you avoid confusing yourself by taking a close look at the horses.

Based on sketchy reading I expected a competitive, interesting race, and it was for a while, but then the usual bunch of rubber legs with one of Plecher's lasting all the way to the wire.

How's Plecher do it? Yes--the blog is still trying to answer this question. Looking at the PPs for this race, believe I was correct early in the year that some new training is taking hold. They've finally all taken note of Bobby Frankel, and so every horse in the field breezes about once a week 4-6f in moderate fractions, with only Wanderin Boy showing a fast breeze pre-race. Surprise, Wanderin Boy finished second. Lawyer Ron received Plecher's classic "three breezes in a row" prior to running off, but you see little different in this horse's breeze patterns than the others.

For the present I'm leaving it like this as to Plecher:
1. He breezes his horses consistently once a week at moderate instead of slow fractions.
2. His horses see the track almost daily, and there's appropriate down time instead of excessive down time (see Lukas) between breezes and races.
3. Hence his horses are reasonably fit going into their races and very energetic due to the light but consistent exercise schedule.
4. Probably highly intelligent husbandry.
5. Thus, with frequently the best(fastest) horse in the race AND everybody else conducting a weaker imitation of your training, you'll likely fairly often what we got in the Whitney.

Great performance and interesting pedigree by LR. But still, gives some hope for the little guys (and girls) as this sort of training seems eminently beatable to me.

Now, back to a much less important topic, the RR stable. Below is the Eureka radar. Eureka is 50 east and slightly to the north of Wichita.
About .4 inches so far at Eureka since Friday probably making the track perfect. But, the forecast shows more to come, and we declined (decision made last night) to risk a long trip.

So, farm breezing for the 12 year olds tonight. I'll report tomorrow. Present plans--a little easier breeze--we'll get 'em into speed immediately but decline to drive them through it. Distance I'm still considering. Nob reports weighing 158 lbs this morning.

Training last night:
Ace was back in a colicky state when I got there last night. Another shot of banamine and I do what I frequently do in colic situations, I exercised him. I ran him fast with Art riderless in an effort to shake up the impaction. It worked. Had the horse still colicked after this exercise, next action would have been to put him in the horse trailer with purpose of making him nervous and passing manure. If that failed to work, then we'd have had a serious problem.
Art:
7/26/07 Thurs. Off.
7/27/07 Fri: riderless, 1 mile WU and 1 mile continuous at moderate speed. tack work.
7/28/07 Sat: riderless Burch Day 3 with Acesmash: several short WU heats, and then 6 x 2f at 85% speed. I had to drive Ace and Art dashed by him. Ace was without a meal, but was hoping this would take care of the colic, and it did.

Saturday's Work

.1 inches of rain for July in KC. We've morphed from all out monsoon to thinking drought. But, all we have to do to get it to rain in Eureka is to plan a trip there. Eureka has .13 inches last 24 hours and an ongoing thunderstorm as I type, and more on the way. Do I see a Bill O'Gorman "minor improvisation" coming as to tomorrow's Eureka trip?

But, RR is feeling pretty good about things. We're in day 90 of galloping under tack, the oldsters are responding to Preston Burch training, and we expect soon to be able to relate to the friendly racing secretary that we have a race ready pair.

Took this snap shot of the present supplement collection. ( left click to enlarge) The Dac Colt Grower was bought to see what it contained. Mostly iron filler, it turns out. The plastic bag contains Purina Alfalfa hay. This all goes with Omelene 200 which we vary with a cheaper mix to dilute the heavy dose of fat in the Omelene:
And, the excitement of the day so far--Acesmash colicing. Today is the breeze day of course. Refused to eat this morning for first time in his life, but, below photo shows him 30 min. after administration of banamine. Unknown if we'll ever get that excess 40 lbs off this horse.
Training:
Friday night the 12 year olds were off. Ace galloped in prep for tonight's breeze.

Art:
7/25/07 Wed.: 6 x 2f at 85% speed with oldster riderless
7/26/07 Thurs. Off
7/27/07 Fri: riderless medium gallop--2x4f Wu + 1 mile. 5 min under tack.

Thursday Workouts

Perfectly planned farm breezes go awry might have been the title for last night as we had a hair raising evening trying to get everything in. But, with a little help from the shoe gods which allowed Nob to tack on a couple of shoes in less than half his usual time, everything turned out well in the end.

The trouble started in my office when a client announced a 5:30 p.m. arrival time to pay some significant much needed money. With breezing at the farm instead of Eureka comes $125 in gasoline savings, and combined with this fee RR was $550 to the better, but arrived at the farm only at 6:30 p.m. with horses to round up, feed, one shoe to tack onto Aylward and then four horses to gallop before dark. It was going to be tight.

Al's shoe went on in a "breeze"; good work Mr. Nob! But, when I corralled Wind for Breeze #1 i was met with this:
Unbelievable! The photo fails to show that 45 degree angle of the left branch of the shoe bent straight upward. Unable to breeze this horse, and with zero hope of breezing him Sunday at Eureka since we'd last done tack work with him Monday.

So, straight ahead. We breezed Aylward and galloped Ace with the two year old to go, and still had some daylight. And there it dawned on me, hey, we might yet get Wind's work in.

Nob indeed replaced the bad shoe in about 10 min with some bare daylight left. Tack horse up. I planned only to gallop in the near dark, but, Nob conducted the breeze anyway, saying that he could barely see the track in front of him and was dodging deer on the turn. The following photo that I snapped immediately after removing Wind's saddle shows how dark it was. Wind is in there somewhere.

On the race track with a pristine surface in the early morning you can do this, but, at the farm with its undulating up and down course, it's a little tougher. Nevertheless, it all got done except the two year old, and we'll be off to Eureka Sunday. Here's what they did:

Al: .8 mile WU and 4 x 2.4f at max speed no stops. Nob said the performance was less impressive than Monday. He wanted the horse to go faster but got no response. On the brighter side, the horse was breathing easily at the end of each heat instead of locking up his breathing as he had been. 13.5 sec/f was probably the fastest he went.

Wind: 2 x 3f WU and 4 x 2.4f all out, but Nob said it was too dark to maintain full speed except in the middle safest parts, so this breeze also was less than Monday. It was sufficient though, and the horse was full of energy and speed.

Art: Off after yesterday's 6 x 2f riderless speed at 85% . Wanted to do tackwork, but, too dark.

Injuries And Other Things

In a week of being lazy, I'll touch on a little miscellaneous stuff. We've reached the stage of rigorous training with the oldsters, and, knocking on wood, have gotten here basically injury free. Ace did show some tendon sponginess for one night only, and Al had a one day check ligament problem, front left, that quickly tightened up, thought there was a minor vestige of that after Monday's breezes.

Of course, the horses instead of just commencing 4 x 2.4f breezes under 175 lbs were brought to that point, but, from here it gets ever toughter. More farm breezes tonight. We'll repeat Monday's work but tighten up the warm up a bit, and try to shorten the gallops out and restarts. We'll plan a Sunday w/o at Eureka in the 3 x 3f range, and then the promised first of August evaluation of "where next".

Here is last night's work:

Wind and Al, the twelve year olds--Day 2 Burch, I decided on riderless work in the paddock before today's breeze work with the horses to go at whatever speed they chose. They chose "slow" for 1.5 miles after warmup. This is the second time after tough breezes on Day 2 Burch that neither horse wanted any part of going fast. It's looking like they need the full two days rest between the breezes. Interesting, and we'll see how this goes.

Ace, age 6, riderless fast stuff in the paddock with Art after two days off. Lot's of energy, flashing that he's starting to put things together.

Art:
7/23/07 Monday: Day 3 Burch. Very snappy two miles riderless with a lot of energy.
7/24/07 Tues: Off.
7/25/07 Wed: Put in paddock with Ace, big horse, little horse with idea of letting them play and exercise at their own speed. The choice they made turned out to be 6 x 2f each one at about 85% speed. They were moving but a little short of all out. This is right were Art is at, and so, go with the flow. Art is late in the shoeing cycle and looked less smooth than normal.

Farm Photos

A few photos of this morning's work:

Groovin' Wind with Art at right.
Art's morning measurement:
"Before"--notice the contracted heels. Shoed this horse too soon as a youngster.
Ready for the shoe. This horse carries more foot on lateral side than medial. And, you'll see the distance from the apex of the frog to the toe slightly shorter than ideal. This is intentional. If we balance the hoof perfectly at shoeing, the hoof will be out of balance a week later. In order to have a balanced hoof during the majority of the shoeing cycle we trim slightly shorter than perfect balance at the time of shoeing.
Size Seven Thoro'bred Level Grip. This front right hoof belongs to the 16' 2.5" six year old, Acesmash.
Rolling Rodney contemplating today's schedule:
Training: RR suffering from horse fatigue last night. All horses off. Plan to conclude my warm up posts next week. Eureka trip in the works, maybe tomorrow.

Farm Breezes

We're still figuring how the Eureka forcast for yesterday morphed from the Sunday prediction of "isolated" showers to a flash flood watch at noon yesterday. To paraphrase Goethe the "tone" of all this for us deciding whether to go was quickly outhurried by the "fact". Unknown how much water Eureka actually got, but, I'm sure they needed the rain.

For us, we did farm breezes last night over our course. Thought I'd post the actual course. After we were done last night I was puzzling whether it's really 2.5 furlongs in length, so, this morning I took the car across it, and from start to end it was exactly .3 miles which works out to 2.4 furlongs. My 2.5f estimate was close.

Here is a Nob's eye view at about rider level of the 2.4f course were we do our speed work:

Speed starts at this very spot and heads for the tree at upper left with a slight veer to the left:
this is just past the tree heading for the turn:
Then, "the turn" so tight that Nob says he barely avoids blowing it at speed. You see the tightness of it better by left clicking to enlarge:
the view coming out of the turn, the breeze goes to the very top of the hill:
approaching the hill horse will finish at top, change to left lead, and veer left:
To this, and left again
to the gallop out. When horse get's to that far tree he'll turn around, trot or gallop back to starting point, and breeze back the way he came on the opposite lead.
After the breezes Nob was going "whooee". Each horse was fast and strong all the way. I estimate top speed at about 13 sec/f. Fair, since we're at 175 lbs tack and rider. The horses are going through the motions of racing, and we'll have to put it all together with about three more Eureka trips. Here is what they did:
7/25: Acesmash: galloped the course with 1F of "all out" in each of 2 heats. Nob said he was wobbly and unsteady. Might be due to galloping late in shoeing cycle. This horse grows a lot of horn to the point he's almost on stilts at the moment.
7/26: Groovin' Wind: 2 x2f warm up of each lead + 4 x 2.4f heats all out without rest between heats--he galloped out, trotted to the starting point and commenced next heat. Looked very good!

Aylward: Nob said just when he thought Wind was reverting to the Wind of old, Aylward reminded that he's the faster horse. Al performed same heats as Wind with some stoppage between, and only the middle two heats were all out. Al is a little behind Wind in training.

Art:
7/21/07 Sat. Off after Friday Burch Day3.
7/22/07 Sun. 10 min. under tack, "attempted" trot. Attempts failed. Oh well. Skipped riderless work this day.
7/23/07 Mon. This should be a Burch Day 3, but, decided on snappy 2 miles riderless with rests every .5 miles. Horse refused to rest. Best energy since late June lay off. Looked like "pre-problem" Art. Too dark for tack. Day 3 tomorrow.

Weather Again

At left your friendly weather person, straight from the Accuweather video center, forecasting "sunny and dry" conditions today in South Central Kansas for our important Eureka breezes this evening. Great! The weather cooperates!

But, what's this? Maybe I should have taken that clown costume more seriously.

RR pinching myself as I read the National Weather Service "Flash Flood Advisory" in effect until 10 p.m. CDT for Greenwood County, Kansas. Weather changes fast in Wichita, it seems. Satellite image shows the latest--rain for next three hours over Eureka Downs (south central Kansas)

So---we get our first July raindrops as RR, retaining composure--sort of, cancels today's trip to Eureka. Of course, thank goodness for the up to date info we have available as otherwise we'd have loaded 'em up to haul the 175 miles to find a muddy, closed racetrack. Farm breezes tonight, and I'll give an up to date later.

Friday Night Workouts

Post the workouts while they're on my mind. These were the workouts that cancelled the Sunday Eureka trip, and RR being quite ok with that. We're going Monday instead. This was "breeze" night at the farm, and we'd planned fairly easy heats with plans to go a little harder at Eureka Sunday. The first horse Groovin' Wind (above) scotched the "plans" when without any urging at all from Nob conducted (according to Nob) the fastest, strongest workout ever at the farm. Wind after warm up went 4 x 2.5f all out as our little course with tight turns and up and down hills permits with the horse weakening at all only the last 1/2 furlong of the last heat. And, there were no rests between the gallop downs and trot back to the starting point. It was really one continuous impressive exercise, so much so that the horse needs two days rest before breezing again. We'll gallop Wind light Sunday, and a mile at about 1:47 planned Monday at Eureka.

Aylward, the other 12 year old also did the 4x2.5f as asked, but Nob says this horse is showing much less acquisition through his workouts than Wind and basically is at where he was 3 weeks ago. Showing some age? Maybe.

Art:
7/18/07 Wed. Off.
7/19/07 Thurs: riderless two miles straight slow and 10 min tack work.
7/20/07 Fri: riderless after warm up 4 x 1f at about 85% speed and 10 min walk under tack.

I love this picture. Ugly rider, ugly horse.

More Fracture Resistance And Warm Up

Ok, bone differs from rock, There is a reaction to warm up stress in bone at the molecular level. How's it work? I gave this a shot last post, but, still unsatisfied, and more Google and again was reminded, they're selling these articles. But, I came up with this summary of Hansma's work:

(published 7/05)
"FUNDAMENTAL DISCOVERY ABOUT THE FRACTURE OF HUMAN BONE: IT'S ALL IN THE 'GLUE'

A startling discovery about the properties of human bone has been made by scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The scientists describe their results--finding a sort of "glue" in human bone--in the cover story of ...Nature Materials. It describes how healthy bone resists fracture and how unhealthy bone fractures at the molecular level. Included with the article are highest resolution images of bone ever published which reveal the location of the adhesive or "glue" that hold together mineralized collagen fibrils (protein fibers) of bone.

The glue appears to contain "springs" that uncoil when the bone is stressed, helping the bone to absorb shock. When the stress is relaxed, they coil back to their original structure.

...the scientists spent several years tracking down where the glue was located in bone and how it worked.

Before this research, it was well known that the mechanical properties of bone depended on mineral particles and on collagen fibrils, said Hansma. The picture of bone was that it consisted of these collagen fibrils coated with tiny mineral crystals only a few atoms thick. What we found is that there is a glue in bone that holds these mineralized collagen fibrils together, and this glue works along the same principles ...found in abalone shells. This glue involves sacrificial bonds (with hidden length) that uncoil when bone is stressed.


Image: Individual collagen fibrils are held together with glue filaments (arrows).

It's especially exciting ...he described the discovery of "molecular shock absorbers" providing a kind of self-healing glue holding biological mineralized structures together when studying the abalone shell...

He noted that these mechanisms give young healthy bone its resiliency and resistance to fracture, and actually help heal microcracks after they're formed..."

Training:
Questionable scheduling this week has put us a little bit behind. We're breezing them tonight, and then Eureka Sunday. Here is Art's work:
7/17/07 Tues. 5 x 1f riderless 90% speed with oldster. ten min walk under tack.
7/18/07 Wed. rest.
7/19/07: Thurs. riderless 5f warm up + 2 miles riderless very slow. 10 min walk under tack.

Bone Fracture Mechanics And Warming Up

The smoking gun again. We're ready to lay the wood to the question: does warming up affect bone soundness?

With the RR hand clapping experiment (see July 12 post), answer, yes it does. But, how?

Wish I did have the smoking gun on that, but at least there are some logical suppositions.

Please note:
1. Bone fracture mechanics is a relatively new study.
2. Paul Hansma, the UCSB physicist studying fracture resistance posts:
a. we'll probably never be able to image a fracture happening in live bone.
b. we've yet to fully understand the mechanism of fracture resistance at the molecular level.
3. I was unable to find any studies at all directly on the point of how warm up affects fracture resistance. I even emailed Hansma who replied and asked if I had any stats, and then declined to respond further. Typical researcher tunnel vision. There is Hansma studying the shells of sea mussels, but what could be more ripe for studying the fracture process than thoroughbred race horses?

So, we do some educated guessing based on a little lay reading.
Consider:

Top view: collagen fibril at rest.
Bottom view: collagen fibril under stress.

The above micrograph shows that force affects the fibril, which appears loose at rest and tightened under stress.

The diagram below shows what happens between the (bone) collagen fibrils at impact. Left click to enlarge:

Again, big difference in the bonds between the fibrils which consists of organic bone glue at rest and under stress.

The next diagram shows the mechanical structure of the bonds or "glue" that permits resistance to stress. The concept of the sacrificial bond as part of the mechanics of fracture resistance is a new discovery of the last few years:

Next is a micrograph of some actual fibrils cracking or pulling apart. You can see the bone glue holding them together under stress:

What can we conclude? There's a difference between the bone at the cellular level at rest and under stress. This is a big, big point in terms of the warm up because it does answer the question that warm up in addition to everything else it affect, it also affects the bones.

The Older Horses

Since someone asked I'll post a word about the older horses, and please avoid expecting anything today as I'm suffering effects of catching up in the office till midnight and then compounding things by spending half the rest of the night on the internet chess boards. A haze prevails, but, I'll give it a try.

The oldsters are 12,12, and a 6 year old non-starter. Being so much further along they're more interesting right now than the two year old, with all three being Preston Burch guinea pigs for the moment.

Burch breezed his horses every three days with time and distance up to trainer judgment. What was done during the non-breeze days also is left up to trainer judgment. The program emphasizes speed work instead of volume, specific race prep instead of "getting in the miles".

Here is what 12 year old Groovin' Wind has done since the weather permitted galloping to begin May 3:

May 2007: galloped generally about 4 days a week 1.5 miles :18/f and did one day of extensive riderless speed work probably in the 2 x 7 f range all out.
June: Burch program begins with short under tack spurts every three days gradually lengthened and speeding up throughout June.
July 5: 4 x 2f at about :13 farm.
July 6 Rest
July 7 1.5 mile gallop at :19/f.
July 8 at Eureka 5f breeze in :14/f with 2f acceleration to :13.
July 9 rest.
July 10 1.5 mil gallop
July 11 4 x2.5 f at farm all out ("all out" at the farm varies with the turns and undulations. fastest we go averages about :13/f with short faster spurts here and there.
July 12 rest.
July 13 1.5 mile gallop :19/f
July 14 Eureka breeze--one mile about 1:50 with 2 x2f accelerations to :13/f. The 2f accelerations were divided with 1f on each lead.
July 15 rest.
July 16 1.5 mi. gallop :18/f
July 17 oops. 7 day cycle instead of 6 days. Unable to go to Eureka Fri. because they grade track. Make mistake of postponing breeze and going 2 x 1 mi. riderless at :16/f. After finishing decided "too much", and we'll postpone the breeze to Thurs. morning, screwing up the week with questionable planning.
July 18 rest
July 19 1 mile in :14/f at farm
July 20 rest
July 21 at Eureka 1 mile in :14/f. I plan this steady and strong. We'll see how he does.

Art Tues Night: 5 x 1 f riderless at 90% speed with oldster. Looked good!

Brief Seguay

Next post on warm up under construction. Training updates:

Acesmash, age 6, front tendons spongy two nights ago completely tight last night. We've gone on galloping, but, he'll lose two breezes. The softness may have been from something other than exercise. we're watching it.

Aylward, age 12--galloped without a lame step but showed slight check ligament (near splint bone) looseness on front left later. Old and usually minor problem. We'll see.

Art:
Sat. 7/14/07: 4 x 3f riderless snappy with oldster.
Sun. 7/15/07: 10 min walk under tack only
Mon. 7/16/07: 5 x 4f riderless. mostly slow, but horse sped up on his own toward end and showed some flash. Without hoof problems. 10 min walk under tack.

Eureka Downs Mid July 2007

Optimism reigns, at least for the moment. Pristine track Saturday at Eureka Downs for the breezes of the two twelve year olds. Two good weeks of weather and five straight breezes along with our sporadic June stuff and the older horses are coming to hand. One breezed a mile Saturday, the other 5/8, with Mr. Nob the rider all excited, but in fact both horses performed as expected. Nob hopefully will be down to the magic 155 lbs. for the works at Eureka next Saturday, and we can start letting them out a bit to racing speed.

Do I get injuries? Hardly ever. Of course, as Richard Mandella laments in "On the Muscle", the horses know. They always wait till you get close to racing. Nob reported a slight almost imperceptible limp from Aylward coming off the track Sat. This actually has been going on for a while since the late June rains, and since I'm unable to find anything I'm thinking hoof bruise or abscess. We'll see. And, our huge horse, Acesmash, after last night's gallop was showing spongy tendons. Jeez. Whittingham--you wait for horses or they'll make you wait for them--we'll have to back off big Ace just a bit after the cadillac breeze Thurs. The tendons were back tight this morning, but, have to be careful here.

The Eureka trip Saturday went like clockwork, more efficient now that we're into a routine. It's still difficult to travel with horses 350 miles without some excitement. This time it waited till we had returned at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning when I hopped out of the truck to shoo away some horses and to my horror left the transmission in drive. I somehow managed to jump back in and stop the rig two yards before it would have crashed into the gate and let the four horses out on the highway in pitch black dark. Better luck than this fellow i snapped on the way to Eureka. Left click and you'll see the truck in the ditch.
and, this was the scene driving into Eureka Saturday at 7:20 p.m. They'd predicted stray strong thunderstorms. Luckily it held off and I can save sticking my head in a bucket for another day.
Art's Training:
Yes, he's still around. Our two year old. We're expecting him to finally move forward the next two weeks after the May-June hoof problems.
Fri. 7/13/07: Off
Sat. 7/14/07: 4 x 3f riderless snappy with oldster. Tack work.
Sun: 7/15/07: 10 min walk under tack only.

Farm Report

Nob weighs in this morning at 159 lbs. for his farm breeze and is spelling Acesmash in his second breeze "c-a-d-i-l-l-a-c". We're off to Eureka. Some farm photos and training report below. You get nice detail by left clicking on photos.

The nightly roundup.

Waiting for Al to take the lead.
There he goes.
Feed buckets ahead.
The weather two weeks ago.
Training of Art:
7/12/07 Thurs: riderless speed work aborted due to misbehavior. Several bursts.
7/13/07 Fri. Friday the 13th seems like a good "off" day.
7/14/07 Sat. morning: Riderless speed work in paddock with oldster. It went something like 4 x 3f with short forced speed bursts. Snappy and enthusiastic all the way. Reintroduced the tack.

Bone Warm Up: An Experiment

Warm up plays a role in fracture resistance. This will be quantified in coming posts. For now, I'll prove scientifically what I know intuitively which is that appropriate bone warm up is a (crucial) component of fracture resistance.
Please try an experiment:

Clap both your hands together very hard. Clap hard enough so that your palms slap together to create a concussive effect. You'll feel the shock of the impact as it goes up your wrist bones. Clap together about five times. Rest a bit. Repeat it. Rest. Repeat about five more times.

As your palms slam together, what do you feel in your wrist bones?

If you get the same sensations as when I try this, with the first few hits you feel shock and just a little bit of pain emanating to our wrist bones. If you continue to hit you'll also begin to feel fatigue in the wrist bones.
I was trying to feel in my wrists as I slammed whether the shock and pain of impact as I continued to hit would feel greater, lesser, or remain the same.
There were two questions:
1. How to evaluate during the 5 strikes.
2. How to evaluate from series to series of 5 strikes with the minute or so rest between.
Initially I felt about the same level of impact from start to finish of the 5 strikes though as noted I began to feel fatigue as I kept striking. Additionally, from series of 5 strikes to 5 strikes repeating this 4 or five times, the difference in force, impact, shock, schock absorption and pain seemed to me to be about the same. Perhaps in the last couple of series there was a slight sensation of reduction of impact, but, it was hard to tell.
HOWEVER, as I was driving along the freeway trying this, I rested for about five minutes after having done six or seven series of five strikes. After the five minute rest I tried three of four more series. Without question my wrist bones after the five minute rest were now much more girded against the force. After the five minute rest I felt hardly any pain, my wrists seemed to easily absorb the impact, and the shock of impact seemed much reduced. I also had the additional sensation that my wrist bones were now very strong and ready to take it on which is the opposite of the way they felt at the initial strikes.

Conclude: In the initial series of strikes with short rests between there was only minor improvement in bone "resistance" to the impact. But, after several series and then a five minute rest and then taking up another set of series, "resistance" was much increased from what it had been initially.

An explanation of this at the cellular level, next post.

Training:

Last night, farm breezes. Nob had about had it after one regular two mile gallop and 8 heats of 2f with gallop in, gallop out for each heat and initial warm ups. Complained that the fast stuff was hard on his legs, his back hurt from shoeing, and on and on, which speaks to Nob's horrible conditioning of late. I want 5 lbs. less of Nob by Saturday's breezes at Eureka. Art's training:
July 9 Mon: 6 x 3f snappy riderless with oldster. not much energy shown.
July 10 Tues: rest
July 11 Wed: 5 x 4f slow gallop riderless at his own speed. showing very little energy or desire to speed up.

Bone Material and Fracture Resistance: The Nitty Gritty

Paul Hansma on his website notes that the Abalone Sea Shell, 97% crystalline calcium carbonate, is 3000 times more fracture resistant than pure calcium carbonate rock.

This is similar to bone where we have a complex construct interwoven in manner similar to reinforced concrete providing, torsional, tensile and compressional strength against force. To see what provides this strength we have to look at the actual composition of bone material and how it holds together. Presumably this will provide us some understanding in appropriate warm up and training of our horses.

Last post I noted the collagen fibrils and mineralized plates as components of bone with mechanical roles of holding it together, and also certain organic proteins interacting in complex chemical manner to form a "bone glue" which differentiates all this from pure calcium carbonate in rock by the way it bonds and the manner in which it operates on a molecular level.

Picture trying to fracture a piece of bone:

"It takes enormous energy to fracture an abalone shell because the protein-based glue between the mineral plates stretches and holds even if the spacing between the places increases from 1 nm to beyond 100 nm. "

And Hansma's site details this process of impact as there is a difference between the bonds "breaking" and irreversibly breaking, and please avoid dismissing the next sentence as jargon because it is crucial to understanding:

When exposed to force "the system dissipates large amounts of energy with entropic and enthalpic forces while stretching out the hidden length of polymers in the "glue" that is exposed when sacrificial bonds break".

How do the polymers stretch out and what is the "hidden length"? Consider:Hopefully this conveys a bit the source of the strength of bone and manner of operation. I'm about to tie it all together.

Training:
July 8, Sun: Off
July 9, Mon: 6 x 3f riderless much of it a little too fast for state of training.
July 10, Tues: Off. Tack work was planned but cancelled as our little fellow (again) shears off a shoe in a fence.

Bone Material and Fracture Restistance

The question I left hanging concerns fracture resistance of bone at rest and under stress. If it's the same, then the manner of warming up might be irrelevant. But, if the fracture resistance of bone material increases by gradual loading of stress, then the manner of warm up might be crucial.

My understanding of all this is incomplete, and to that I'd add that I've already posted that the scientific knowledge of fracture resistance is still developing. Moreover, I've decline to buy any of the $40-50 articles on fracture resistance, so, please avoid "boning up" on these posts for your bone mechanics fracture resistance exam. I'm just guessing, putting together, extrapolating from what little is available on the net, though I'll suspect my conclusions to be fairly "right on" even if in some respects technically incorrect.


Stewart Eidelson MD (first bone post) generalized that bone is inner and outer bone called cortical and cancellous. The inner bone is more matrix or lattice while the outer seems a combo of collagen fibers, crystalline salts and various chemical bonds.

Breaking it down further, the morphology of outer bone--collagen fibrils, mineral plates, and an unmineralized, organic material made up mostly of proteoglycans and glycoproteins (txs. Paul Hansma website).

It seems that the mineralized fibrils have various degrees of unmineralized "coating". Some photos from Hansma:

A: fibrils coated with unmineralized organic material
B. unmineralized collagen fibrils
C. mineralized fibrils
D. crack formation



If you look at D above you'll see what looks like some sticky stuff where the crack is pulling apart. Hansma 2005: We're pleased to announce ...our work identifying the existence of a glue in bone."

It's this glue that aids in bone strength and fracture resistance including the nature of it's various bonds that I'll get into next post.

Training:
Mr. Nob stepped on the scale this morning and came in at 160 lbs. That's progress. Hopefully 155 lbs by Sat. We'll breeze the oldsters at the farm Wednesday then off to Eureka Sat. Art as follows:
Thursday July 5: 4th straight day of riderless paddock work. 5 min under tack.
Fri. July 6: off.
Sat July 7: 6 x 3f riderless most of it snappy.
Sun July 8: Off we're at Eureka
Mon: 6 x3f riderless with oldster in paddock. Several fast bursts and a lot of 2 min lick stuff. Strenuous w/o maybe a little too much. Horse seems unsure on footfall and holding back instead of streching out. sore feet again. horse trying to tell me something maybe.
Sat. July 7:

Uneventful Trip

Well, sort of. Always some excitement. This time was trying to snap a photo of Aylward--horse-- in the trailer. Ooops! Out he jumps. Luckily Steve Jones, trainer, was absent and missed the hoopla in his shedrow. Snorting, rearing, dust everywhere, hoofs flying. It lasted all of two minutes before we corralled big Al who was pranced back to his stall. Left KC at 4:15 p.m. and returned at 2:00 a.m. Eight hours on the road; two hours at Eureka, 10 min. on the track.. Nice conversation with trainer Zack Ashlock and his wife back from Anthony Downs 125 mi. west of Eureka. They're interested in standing Aylward at their farm in Hamilton, KS., where they have about 10 head.

My two 12 yr. olds worked well. Very cuppy track, but horses surprised with their racing fitness. We'll work through July and see where we are 8/1. Photos follow.

Photo Album Eureka Trip 7/8/07

You can see details in the photos by left clicking on the photo.

The ponds are full. Last year same time, severe drought.Everything is green along U.S. Route 75 near Burlington and Yates Center, Ks.
It's a very long drive.
Yates Center. Click on the sign "Hay Capital Of The World".
Yates Center. Right at the stop sign and 30 miles to Eureka.
Flint Hills near Eureka at dusk.
Meeting over July 4. The guard shack is empty.
The barns are mostly empty.
Thankfully the track is open.
The grossly overweight Nob, ready for work. Ooops! Forgot to raise stirrups.