Warm Ups

I've experimented with various warm up routines for years, and so the warm up prescriptions in this post are hardly anything new. However, in consideration of presently "blogging" about warm ups, I've also specifically tried the formula's in this post recently just to refresh my mind on how they work for the horse and compare the effectiveness of each routine in terms of getting maximum performance coming out of the gate.

The variables in warm up routine are:
1. distance.
2. speed.
3. stride--trot, canter, gallop.
4. Leads--left or right.
5. rest periods between warm up heats.

Think the RR stable at one time or other has performed all the possibilities. Maybe there are others, but, think that the below about covers it.

1. Routine #1:
a. walk-trot 1.5f.
b. Canter beside pony for 2 minutes.
c. short walk.
d. (only for the lucky) canter another furlong.
e. 5-7 minutes of mill around walk--this is more energetic than appears from the stands.
f. again, for the lucky, a few steps of trot before being loaded into gage.
Let's be impolite from the get go and dub this afternoon race track warm up as the "ridiculously stupid" routine. More on the "stupidity" part later.

2. Routine #2:
a. trot 2f.
b. gallop 3f with a bit of acceleration at the end.
c. trot 1.5f
d. 2f at about 80% speed.

3. Routine #3
a. trot 1f.
b. 4 x 2f gallop. Each heat will accelerate a bit toward the end, but the speeds go something like: :20s (20 seconds/f), :17, :15, :14 with a few strides at sub :14. (HINT--this one seems to be the most consistently effective.)

Routine #4: continuous exercise-1f trot, and 6f gallop accelerating to doing the last 2f in :14s.

5. Routine #4: This is the routine maybe closest to what a human might do preparing to run a 440 yd dash:
a. trot 2 x 1f with walk between.
b. gallop 2 x 1f with walk between at :18s.
c. gallop 1 f in :15.
d. Gallop 2 x 1f in :14 with walk between
This routine consists of short spurts. Hint that this fails to work for horses. It's a species thing.

I'll discuss these routines specifically in terms of max performance next post.

Training:
Groovin' Wind was off Monday after his Sunday Breeze. He'll gallop 1.5 miles in :17s tonight in prep for tomorrow's breeze.
Art: Back into it last night, the paddock secured so they're unable to escape. Art and Ace galloped riderless for 2 miles slow after a .5 mile trot w/u. Too dark again for tack work. We're shoeing right now, and it's tough to get it all in.