Detraining and Bones
Nice race last night in the Delta Jackpot as RR considers his own two year old that still pasture trots under tack at this point. Lots of fast horses in last night's race, and if anything was missing that I saw in this bunch it's strong galloping or strength supporting the natural speed. Those horses looked fast going around there, but weak, and so my reaction that it's possible to compete with this bunch, and how nice is it to have a million dollar race in early December the main competitors are on layoff. Hmmm...
Muscle cells detrain rapidly, but, what about bones and bone structure? Specifically we're talking about the mineral laticework in the cannon bones and also the fetlock-sesamoid, and knee complexes in terms of bone glue strength and overall fracture resistance.
Assuming of course, that our venerable conventional trainer already has conditioned these bone structures to the point of maximum fracture resistance, thereafter the trainer plans a specific layoff period whether it be one or two days, weeks or months. At what point does the bone commence demineralization and the other markers of reduced fracture resistance?
I've seen but one study indicating significant demineralization after a 6 month layoff. That's enough to indicate the "lose-it or use it" phenomenon applies to bone structure also! Believe we can extrapolate though, that it takes quite a bit more time for bones to commence the deconditioning than muscles cells. How long? Just my own wild speculation based on 20 years experience with limited number of experimental rats, I'd guess some demineralization commences after a couple of weeks layoff, and that after a four week layoff the process accelerates quickly to the point you finally have the same bone structure as the untrained horse.
But, the far more important issue for our racehorses is the question of "insufficient structure" to begin with, and then illogical training breaks that further weaken already inadequate bone. What I'm referring to in real time is the youngster that is moved to its first race with barely enough bone remodeling to survive the race, and thereafter when our typical conventional trainer backs off because the horse is sore, tired, injured, riders are unavailable or the most usual that the trainer is too plain dam lazy, inconvenienced or pocketing rider money to bother.
As Ivers noted in his studies, what is known about bone remodeling is that every trip to the track is money in the bank, and by extrapolation, if we're keeping our horse in the stall or on the walker instead of under load on the race track, every lost day conversely is a day of bone weakening. Add up enough bone weakening days to inadequate bone, eventually you get failure would be the theory. I'll try to pull all this together in the coming posts.
Our training: Thurs was the off day. Friday 12/7 Art: Another 9f riderless as fast as conditions allowed and this after extensive warm up. There was light snow over a soft surface at about 33 degrees F. Had one horse fall and slide 10 feet, but, they were able to motor reasonably fast. Art this week has had 3 of these 9f riderless workouts. We like what we're seeing from Art. Let's call him at this point as gaining strength. He's got a ways to go but getting there. Each riderless session this week including Friday was followed by short rest and then 10-15 minutes of under track trot in the pasture. Each day Nob reported a few strides of gallop. We were looking for a break-through day where Nob could completely trust the horse out alone in open space in the pasture. This came on Friday as Nob reported the first day were the horse was completely under control. Today under terrible conditions we quit after a two mile riderless pasture romp for all horses.
Y: The youngster has continued to gallop riderless with the oldsters with a little more volume and speed each day. This fellow is the human equivalent of a 9-10 yr. old and so we're being careful. But he's going about 10 minutes riderless now, and starting to show some real strength. We'll go from there. Due to weather we've passed on long line work this week. Earliest this fellow will have a rider on board probably is April or May. Lot's of time yet!
Muscle cells detrain rapidly, but, what about bones and bone structure? Specifically we're talking about the mineral laticework in the cannon bones and also the fetlock-sesamoid, and knee complexes in terms of bone glue strength and overall fracture resistance.Assuming of course, that our venerable conventional trainer already has conditioned these bone structures to the point of maximum fracture resistance, thereafter the trainer plans a specific layoff period whether it be one or two days, weeks or months. At what point does the bone commence demineralization and the other markers of reduced fracture resistance?
I've seen but one study indicating significant demineralization after a 6 month layoff. That's enough to indicate the "lose-it or use it" phenomenon applies to bone structure also! Believe we can extrapolate though, that it takes quite a bit more time for bones to commence the deconditioning than muscles cells. How long? Just my own wild speculation based on 20 years experience with limited number of experimental rats, I'd guess some demineralization commences after a couple of weeks layoff, and that after a four week layoff the process accelerates quickly to the point you finally have the same bone structure as the untrained horse.
But, the far more important issue for our racehorses is the question of "insufficient structure" to begin with, and then illogical training breaks that further weaken already inadequate bone. What I'm referring to in real time is the youngster that is moved to its first race with barely enough bone remodeling to survive the race, and thereafter when our typical conventional trainer backs off because the horse is sore, tired, injured, riders are unavailable or the most usual that the trainer is too plain dam lazy, inconvenienced or pocketing rider money to bother.
As Ivers noted in his studies, what is known about bone remodeling is that every trip to the track is money in the bank, and by extrapolation, if we're keeping our horse in the stall or on the walker instead of under load on the race track, every lost day conversely is a day of bone weakening. Add up enough bone weakening days to inadequate bone, eventually you get failure would be the theory. I'll try to pull all this together in the coming posts.
Our training: Thurs was the off day. Friday 12/7 Art: Another 9f riderless as fast as conditions allowed and this after extensive warm up. There was light snow over a soft surface at about 33 degrees F. Had one horse fall and slide 10 feet, but, they were able to motor reasonably fast. Art this week has had 3 of these 9f riderless workouts. We like what we're seeing from Art. Let's call him at this point as gaining strength. He's got a ways to go but getting there. Each riderless session this week including Friday was followed by short rest and then 10-15 minutes of under track trot in the pasture. Each day Nob reported a few strides of gallop. We were looking for a break-through day where Nob could completely trust the horse out alone in open space in the pasture. This came on Friday as Nob reported the first day were the horse was completely under control. Today under terrible conditions we quit after a two mile riderless pasture romp for all horses.
Y: The youngster has continued to gallop riderless with the oldsters with a little more volume and speed each day. This fellow is the human equivalent of a 9-10 yr. old and so we're being careful. But he's going about 10 minutes riderless now, and starting to show some real strength. We'll go from there. Due to weather we've passed on long line work this week. Earliest this fellow will have a rider on board probably is April or May. Lot's of time yet!
posted by rather rapid at
2:02 PM
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