The Minnesota Bridge Collapse

Just as I become aware of the engineering field called "fracture mechanics" we get the Minnesota bridge collapse yesterday driving home the point again that fractures occur for a reason and are preventable with appropriate care. We're interested in equine bones instead of bridges, but this tragedy in Minneapolis will put the spotlight on that they study this stuff, and probably it will turn out that just as on the race track, somebody screwed up.

"Fracture mechanics is the field of solid mechanics that deals with the behavior of cracked bodies subjected to stress and strains."

It's been an overly busy RR week. I'll just summarize training and continue on the warm up posts as I get more time.

Training since the breezes Sunday: the nice thing about Burch training, it's very flexible. We perceived need for a little extra rest for the oldsters after Sunday's breezes. Each 12 yr. old had Mon. and Tues. off, and last night we continued the speed work with some short riderless bursts qualifying as a Burch day 3, but giving the horses a little break from tack work. We'll commence easy galloping tonight with the idea of segueing to a breeze at Eureka Sat. or Sun., whichever day we judge appropriate.
Art's training:
7/30/07 Mon: Day 2 Burch WU + one mile riderless continuous at :16 sec/f
7/31/07 Tues: Off--RR unavailable.
8/1/07 Wed: Burch Day 3: WU + 4 x 3f with oldster, riderless. Each heat was at :15sec/f except we threw in a 1/2f all out section into each one.