Bone Remodeling And Distance

Injury avoidance/fracture resistance requires bone size, density, quality for the race horse as opposed to inactive horse. I've surmised we need :12.5/f speed, minimally, to get this, but, how far need we carry this speed before bone commences to remodel. Be nice to know as opposed to guesswork, just the facts ma'am.

Supposing we're without studies, and thus we have the usual analysis using a few tidbits of info available. To clarify, what I'm talking about here, in order to get appropriate bone remodeling (emphasis on appropriate, racing speed fracture resistance over 1 to 1.25 miles), in our breezing and race prep at :12.5/f how far do we need to go at that :12.5/f speed--e.g. 1f,2f,3f,4f, farther???

Per last post, the front lead leg strikes the ground anywhere from 25 to 30 times per furlong depending on speed and stride efficiency. For discussion, let's say it's 28 "hits" per furlong with each hit presumably having some effect on bone. If you disbelieve that last statement, please do as I did last night and clap your hands together reasonably hard, hard enough to make a loud sound. This handclapping produces some feel in your wrist bones simulating the feel or impact on the cannon bone as the hoof hits the track.

I did about 90 fairly loud claps. Per my posts on warm up last summer, after about 60 claps you begin to feel that your wrists are a lot more into it and efficient. I felt, literally, the transition to more efficient stronger clapping after 60 claps. My complete reaction was as follows:

first 30 claps--I'm just doing it--feeling in the bone is of a lot of concussion but the wrist bone feels, comparatively, fairly dead compared to what's to come.

second 30 claps--clapping feels easier, more efficient, the actual force and concussion on the wrist seems to dissipate somewhat in terms of the sensation you get.

third 30 claps--the concussion now feels as it's actually building but the wrist also feels stronger and more able to absorb compared to the first 30 claps. First 30 you get sensation that if you clap hard enough you might break those little bones, whereas from 60-90 you get a feeling of invulnerability that the bones could stand a lot more force than you're giving them.

The point of the above exercise is that there is as you transition through the total "number" of poundings the bone is to absorb a difference in the way the bone absorbs things. For example, I'm supposing the relatively "dead" feeling in the bone in the first 30 claps means perhaps that the first 30 hits are doing very little to the bone itself other than waking up the living cells there that something is going on, and as the clapping continues the internal bone commence some adjustment.

Now, may we further surmise that as the clapping continues some of the bone tissue at some point will become strained. The feeling of strength will transition to a feeling of fatigue, and finally we will get the microscopic damage that causes the bone to actually remodel. I declined to clap long enough to cause damage. Hey, I need my wrists and I've learned in the past from weight lifting how quickly you can get a little developing stress fracture there. But, I feel reasonably sure that had I kept clapping at some point the fatigue and damage would have come.

Do we need to keep the horse going far enough to develop bone fatigue and microscopic damage to get the remodeling that we need, i.e. how far must we go, next post.

Training: better weather last night and an office thing kept me downtown till after dark. 2/28 thus was a rest day. We'll commence again with tack work tonight.

Next Subject: Distance

Our ever vigilant trainer, even if they failed to read this blog, will understand that regardless of what else the horse does, true fracture resistance at racing speed will require practicing at :12.5/f.
But, how far to carry the :12.5? Will one stride of :12.5 do bone remodeling, two or three, or thirty, forty or more?

I'm picturing the front cannon slapping at the turf as the horse goes through it's :12.5/f stride. How many strides per furlong? 220 yards. Say a horse covers 28 feet per stride. That's 23 complete strides per furlong. That seems too many. I'll pause to watch a race and see if I count that many strides.

Yup. You can count the strides by watching the head nods. Fountain of Youth. Lead horse Golden Spikes pretty much at 27-28 strides/f in what supposedly is a slow pace. Can we say at sprinting speed they'd do 24-26 strides/f? Next question: how many times per furlong does e.g. the front right (lead) leg hit the ground/f down the stretch? Seguey back to race:

On Cool Coal Man, rough count, from the quarter pole to finish line I counted lead leg hitting the ground 62 times or 31/f. CCM did those final 2f in :26. Would his lead leg have hit the ground more times or less times had the 2f speed been :24? I am presuming at :12/f the lead leg for an efficient conditioned horse would hit less times than in :13 because going faster the horse is covering more ground per stride.

My initial estimate 28 feet per stride obviously is way off, i.e. these horses are not getting 28 feet per stride. From what I'm seeing it's more 22-24 feet per stride.

So, for purpose of discussion what would be an average per furlong of the lead leg striking the track with an efficient, conditioned animal? I'm assuming 23 feet per stride which is 28 eight strides or strikes to the ground for the lead leg, per furlong.

How many of such ground strikes or how many furlongs of striking at :12.5/f for fracture resistance, next post.

Training:
A cool 38 degrees last night felt like a heat wave. The ground was still hard (instead of deep mud) and we ran them riderless with Art carrying 35 lbs Astride. Back and forth slow over hard ground, they spurted but a couple of times. Decent for what we're hoping is the first weight carrying workout straight to the first race.

Weather, Stable, Plans And Motivation

Next, how far do we have to carry those :12.5s to get fracture resistance, but first I wanted to post just where we are with the RR stable, two horses all, since that was the original purpose of the blog to post our training and what we'd hope was a derby prep whereever we might fall. The blog started in October of 2006 with the purchase of our present three year old Amart, and almost from day one the weather has been such a continual problem, with Art and racing we're basically nowhere right at the moment.

To put it into perspective, in the 16 months Art has been here 7 of them have been what I call trainable and even in two of those 7 months we were dodging rain. Some hoof problems along the way hardly helped.

What has happened to the Kansas City climate? In western Missouri/Eastern Kansas rain tends to time itself perfectly and in nearly ideal amounts. About every two-three weeks we get a half inch rain shower that keeps us off the edge of drought. About four years ago the weather changed. After my 2003 racing at Eureka I was never able to get a horse ready at the farm again. Suddenly for many months of the year it was raining constantly, every four or five days it rains, and in those period we can train, just as we get ready comes another weather interruption.

This rainy weather I considered an aberration and waited for things to change back to normal. Now, after four years of this stuff, I'm convinced the weather has changed and that we're in a pattern of alternating wet/dry that's likely to continue. Suddenly Kansas City, instead of seeing rain clouds come through from one direction, is getting hit from all four corners with everything coming into continental USA.

And then there's the present winter. Around here they're saying it was the worst in memory even forgetting our Alberta like winters of '88 and '89. But for sustained misery for the whole three months, it's been pretty horrible. I realized we were in trouble early December when I saw this:
a gigantic frigid air mass covering all of Siberia and extending over the pole into Canada. It's still there as I copied the above map last week. At one time they were getting 70 below over much of their continent, and with this stuff still dissipating you even worry about this coming spring.

The bottom line for us, it's difficult to impossible to train horses at the farm in this weather and ground conditions. We're today in our 92d straight day of no dry ground. I've been able to use our normal running paddock exactly one time since November.

Please notice I used "difficult" instead of impossible. I'll confide, in those winters of '88-'89 when we had weeks at minus ten degrees RR was out there training horses every day. When I first got into the horse business my motivation and determination were such that literally nothing stopped me from doing my training. Some way I'd see the horses exercised regardless of conditions, and I developed various ways from shipping them to arenas, using a double lunge line with myself running full speed on the radius in a muddy winter field with cut corn stalks, to running them in driving rain.

These days I'd have to report that RR has lost that edge, at least for the time being. My attitude these days seems to be that it's tough enough to go out there and do the training every day, and that I'm lacking the will to additionally fight through ridiculous weather. I rationalize this lack of will power by questioning in those days when I did go out every day regardless, what it ever got us. Very little, would be the truth, and I do visualize that even this winter, we might have spent the winter trotting under tack, and the horses would be marginally farther ahead for all the effort, but would the gigantic effort this would have taken been worth what we would have had?

Probably not, though that hardly makes me feel any better about failing to put in the effort. But, things change, and one has to adapt. I've come up with some stuff to beat the weather and get the training back on track, and we'll be posting hopefully as we go.

Training:
2/25/08 was a normal off day. Declined to go out there yesterday with 30 mph howling winds and 28 degrees on frozen ground.

Curlin Correction♠

Txs to anonymous commenter on my last post about the training of Curlin. I've learned two things here. 1. it's unnecessary to pay $8.00 to equibase to get the PPs (as I just did) and then get only part of them, and 2. you can get PPs for free on DRF, which is just great. Again, txs. anonymous!

Some how I have missed, or Blood Horse failed to report, the last three Curlin breezes. Even today, before I read anonymous comment, I was scratching my head at how hard Asmussen's Pyro and other TC trainees were working, and here (I had thought) Curlin was doing almost nothing. But, here is the "corrected" Curlin PPS all at the Fairgrounds:

1/6/08 :53.40
1/12/08 :51:20
1/18/08 1.04
1/24/08 1.00.6
1/30/08 1:13
2/5/08 1.25.20
2/12/08 1.23.60

Seems a logical, very aggressive progression. Exactly 6 days between breezes, plenty of sub :12.5s. If I'd question anything about this it would be the one powderpuff 4f breeze between 2/12 and 2/28 the day of the race. I'd question it more in terms of performance than injury avoidance though you might still ask the question as to how much bone resorption between 2/12 and the race.

The above of course revises completely my incorrect opinions of last post. It also supports my notion that Asmussen exceeds conventional training in the Lukas mold. Is it enough? Not in my book, but, I'd call Curlin's prep above average, and give the sufficiency in terms of fracture resistance a "maybe"with the soon to be completed analysis on the blog. At any rate you'd hardly think this trainer is a putz to train against. Training that's cause for concern for us aspiring Derby types.

Training: horses off yesterday after 3 straight days of quick as conditions allow riderless galloping. Will we go out and do tack work with the winds howling at 28 degrees today? We'll see.

Curlin And Breezing Speed(see correction next post)

Curlin is in Dubai. The Blood Horse article says Curlin did his prep stateside before shipping. Unless I've missed a breeze, they've breezed him four times since the Breeder's Cup on (or about) 11/1. Four breezes in four months that went something like this:

4f in :53
4f in :50
5f in 1:02
4f in :50.5 in Dubai

Then we have one 1 1/4 mile race 2/28 (I think) then the Dubai World Cup.

Based on the above, is disaster looming for Curlin? If you're a trainer how could that fail to go through your brain given this powderpuff work schedule?

In terms of my recent posts, most of this work has been in :12.5 or slower. Here is a trainer, based on my recent conclusions, that is doing the bare minimum speed for fracture resistance with hard to fathom distance and frequency to boot. How do you go off a few slow 4F works and race 1.25 miles against the best horses in the world with a horse looking as if its packing a hundred more pounds, and live to survive?

A few "qualifications" on my opinion. It is unknown what Curlin does on his off days. I've long suspected that you are unable to get a horse of this quality from these cotton tissue Asmussen breezes and that thusly Asmussen does a lot with Curlin that we never see. It is documented that Asmussen frequently gallops horses 2 miles, and if Curlin has spent the better part of two months coming home in :12s on several two mile gallops per week, my opinion would change as to adequate fracture resistance.

Additionally we have the factor of a very experienced trainer, lots of horses running now for years and years, that has perhaps honed exactly what he can get away with. I'd hesitate to call Asmussen the fool that the above workout schedule indicates. Of course, if Curlin breaks down, that will solve the mystery whether the horse did more than the breezing schematic above. I'd go on record as saying you simply are unable to get by with this little work in four months even with D.W. Lukas style galloping thrown in and go from that immediately into high pressure 1.25 mile racing and fail to have a significant injury. We'll see!

Training: on 2/23 we got another nice (and fast) riderless pasture romp. Ground looks good to go again today as it only got up to 38 degrees for a few hours. Hopefully we'll have time before dark to recommence tack work.

Conclude: Speed and Fracture Resistance

Forces acting on the equine skeleton produce the bone remodeling on right. How much speed, which also means how much force, do we need to produce race surviving fracture resistance?

I've outlined in the previous posts what is available:

1. There are few studies. Human fracture resistance, much less equine, still in its infancy.

2. My personal observations of slow breezing trainers over the years whose horses tend to quickly disappear. My guess that statistical analysis would confirm that slow breezing trainers are unable to avoid fractures and chips.

3. On board detection of the concussive forces at various speeds. The rider can sense the transition from ground flicking to bounding as speed increases and also the concussive feel of each stride as the horse goes through decreasing fractions. And so, the rider's sense that the transition from flicking to bounding completes at about :12.5/f.

4. Visual observation at various speeds of foot fall, reach and length of stride, confirming rider feel that the horse is in full bounding action and thus increased concussive load at about :12.5/f.

5. Consequently we presume bone reacts in response to increasing loading factors so that in :13s we have maybe 20% less load than in :12s, e.g. 9600 lbs./sq. inch as opposed to 12,000 lbs./sq. inch.

6. That there is some point as the fractions decline of maximum load, and that the percentage increase in load as we go faster than :12s may actually decline due to decreasing hoof to ground contact as bounding speed increases. I've estimated max load at 13,200 lbs./sq. inch regardless of speed.

7. And finally, the assumption that bone remodels in response to the load factor, i.e. we get less remodeling in terms of size, quality and density at 9600 lbs/sq. inch than we do at 12,000 lbs/sq.inch.

So, for this skeleton of our venerable racer:I've concluded that bare minimum galloping speed to get fracture resistance at racing speeds is :12.5/f. Slower, and you get insufficient remodelling. Thus, what should our trainer do in terms of speed, next post.

Training: Sat. morning at 9:00 a.m. and it's 19 degrees in KC. But, we're happy. Temps are going straight up. Horses had several quick riderless bursts Friday over the new snow in the Astride paddock. They got over the snow much better than myself. We'll repeat today as we brace ourselves for the coming mud.

More On Mandella And Crown Of Thorns

Could the injury to Crown of Thorns have been avoided by rearranging the workout schematic? I'll come back to this and perhaps some other injured Derby horses as the blog proceeds to concluding the topic "how conventional training causes injuries." For now I'll simply give the opinion that yes, probably had Mandella done things differently he'd have avoided this particular injury. I'll go further to say that this is another training job--and we know how hard Mandella must have been trying with this horse, and how well motivated--that on the surface looks ok, but on closer scanning is just downright negligent. What happened to the horse is exactly what you'd expect. That can be said of most of the them, unfortunately.

Yet, we'll see whether this year's Derby class remains as healthy as a year ago. I noticed a very definite improvement in training a last year and the lack of injuries in the usual horrific percentages confirmed this. Nafzger led the way of course, but, as much as I bad mouthed Larry Jones and also Asmussen, both of their horses made it through. Blind luck or training? More will tell this year.

Meanwhile today's Bloodhorse provides even more fodder for the blog. Consider:

"Garrett Gomez, David Flores, and former rider Gary Steven on the jockey panel all praised the synthetic surface, despite the glitches.

My body has felt tremendously better, said Gomez. They really help with wear and tear on our bodies.

Stevens said that many of his 14 knee surgeries during his career occurred due to jarring or hard, sealed or inconsistent dirt tracks."

Nice to see Hall of Fame jocks confirm what I've posted about concussion at speed, that the rider can feel it, that it jars the rider, and so we may imagine what it does to the fragile leg bones of the horse.

I'll try to conclude next post what I believe we have to do in terms of training speed to avoid the injury to Crown of Thorns, or worse.

Training: About 14 degrees this morning, and a couple of inches of snow coming in. But, this is it. Winter's over and we're on the up and up from here on in. Good for the snow. I can run them on top of the snow tomorrow.

Crown Of Thorns

This one I have to look at. Mandella Derby prospect Crown of Thorns (photo) announced today as having a shin problem or saucer fracture and so a good guinea pig for the present subject of the blog. Did COF do enough to develop "fracture resistance". Obviously, in the negative, but, how did it happen?

A saucer fracture, presumably on a front cannon bone, is a small crack on the shin surface that is parallel to the ground, appearing sort of like a thin dime imposed on the Xray. Unless you stop training, it can go all the way through the cannon bone. Just exactly the sort of thing we'd hope to prevent.

Tiz on Pedigree Forum posted the works:

quote="Tiz"]Crown of Thorns 02/15/2008 SA 6F 1:17.80 All Weather Track Fast H
2/2/2008: right into a 1 1/8th stakes that he wins after a 1:34 and change mile and
pressed to the max down the stretch
01/26/2008 HOL 7F 1:31.80 All Weather Track Fast H
01/19/2008 SA 7F 1:24.80 All Weather Track Fast H
01/12/2008 SA 5F 1:00.00 All Weather Track Fast H
1/3/2008 wins maiden
12/28/2007 SA 3F :37.20 All Weather Track Fast H
12/23/2007 SA 6F 1:14.40 All Weather Track Fast H
12/17/2007 SA 3F :37.60 Dirt training Fast H
12/8/2007 finishes 5th in Maiden race
12/05/2007 HOL 3F :38.20 All Weather Track Fast B G[/quote]

What jumps out at you? First look at Mandella's days between works or races starting 12/5:

2 days
9 days
6 days
5 days
6 days
9 days
7 days
7 days
7 days

I'd say the splits of days are relatively consistent and quite reasonable. We may also assume that the horse had a couple of gallops between works. Unknown how far Mandella gallops on the off days.

Distance: There are 5 works exceeding 3f in 62 days. Think you'd question this and probably consider it a bare minimum.

Speed: All I can see here is that there's plenty of :12s type work, BUT, is there anything in this whole schematic that would prepare a youngster for the 1:34 mile and pressure down the lane in the R.B. Lewis. Nothing at all imo. And, without any doubt, the race would be where the problem would have developed unless it was already there. This is yet another instance, where we may surmise preparation appearing adequate but insufficient on close scrutiny. There are zero fractions above that come close to the race speed/distance combo, a double whammy surprise to the cannons, and leave it at that for now. Watch the race and you'll probably see where the injury developed. I posted Mandella's injury rate (hint: it's horrific) in my posts of 1/24/07 and 2/1/07. Better prep here than a lot of those horses, but far short of what we might consider necessary for injury prevention. More on this as I go on.

Training: 6 degrees today in KC at 11:00 a.m. Fearful weather.

Concussion And Bounding Stride At Speed

These photos show visually the bounding stride at speed and the elevation and extension of the front lead leg that you get only occasionally at the slower speeds below :12.5. Exhibit A, so to speak, that at top speeds the front leg comes down with greater force, the hoof hitting the track produces signficiantly more concussion, and that there is thus presumably a differing remodeling effect in horses doing :13s as opposed to :12s.

Absent studies I've tried to imagine what happens to the bone structure, and we're talking quantity of bone in terms of size and circumference and also quality interms of density, filling in the bone lattice work and matrix with mineralized and non-mineralized collagen and quite a few other structures.

My thoughts are that bone size, though affected by concussion, perhaps is more a function of distance and frequency of galloping. I can see how a trainer who consistently gallops horses two miles (Asmussen, Drysdale), even at slower speeds will get increase in cannon bone circumference but will leave that cannon deficient in quality. I'm imagining it is the concussion and force that causes the bone to fill in the spaces in the latticework. And further, that were we to dissect the cannons of horses doing :13s and :12s, I'm supposing we'd see a difference in bone quality that might in some instances be significant.

Can you train a horse to soundness doing only :13s? Wrap it up next post.

Training: yesterday afternoon marks the first time this winter I've made the farm trip and passed on training. That's significant for me cause it's never happened before as I always do something when I arrive. Yesterday, solid sheet of ice. Will post on our stable soon.

SeeingThe Gear Change

Last post I speculated increases in concussion as one goes through the fractions of increasing speed based on my own on-board observations that I perceive galloping down a race track. It's unecessary though to be riding the horse since you may also see the increasing concussion and the reasons for it with your own eyes.

I was again watching Mandella's "On The Muscle" last night and observing the horse in the photo Mandella trainee The Tin Man in the 2002 Breeder's Cup Turf. Tom Durkin making the call, The Tin Man spurted out of the gate and Durkin calling a painfully slow first quarter of :25.5 or about :12.8/f.That's almost :13s and at this speed TM was just flicking along, pounding yes, but very little extension of the front legs.

Then they come rounding the final turn with Durkin "here's comes High Chapparal, and (voice crescendoing) With Anticipation...". Along with Durkin's call with the whole field commencing the patented sprint through the stretch you see in long turf races, one can also see a significant change in action from the earlier slower fractions.

If you observe closely you notice at faster speeds (:12s or faster) the front legs both stretching out farther and higher with the body of the horse lenghening as the horse converts fully from a "flicking" action to a "bounding" action. To increase to max speed. it seems, horses have to bound along, literally catapulting themselves across the ground. I was watching this last night and speculating that the faster ones in this bounding action are perhaps a bit stronger in the shoulders and rear end and also possibly are able to "extend" a bit more with their front ends which might have just a bit to do with angle at the shoulder.

Significantly, full bounding action (as opposed to a bounding flicking combo) seems to start at the :12.5 mark becoming more pronounced with increasing speed. In the particular race The Tin Man becomes engulfed by High Chapparal and With Anticipation who are able to fully extend while The Tin Man is tying up and unable and fades to fourth. You can also visually see at the "bound" the front legs of the leaders pounding into the turf with far greater concussion then at the lower speed, but, you can also see the reason why this occurs.

What I saw was that at the faster bounding pace the reaching "up" much more than the reaching "out" with the front legs causes the increase in concussion. Why? Because by moving the front leg "up" there is more distance between the hoof and the ground which creates more time for the horse to bring its leg down at force and hence more concussion. I watched several other races to verify what I saw in the 2002 BC Turf, and indeed where I saw the horses speeding up from slower fractions this sort of action is obvious every single time.

The gear change thus from "bounding/flicking combo" to "full bounding" occurs at about :12.5 speed. You can feel it onboard the horse, and you can see the change in action from the ground. The significance, next post.

Training: Another 2 inches of precip on top of us this weekend along with 2 inches of snow. Horrible weather. Horses off yesterday, but will start up again today.

How To Decipher Needed Speed?

It's really a complex question, and it has yet to be tested. What do we get in terms of bone remodeling at various speeds? If I were testing I'd have to answer a couple of questions. First, looking at each of the fractions separately:

:15s :14s :13s :12s :11s :10 and change

Last post I noted from the rider's position there's an obvious increase in hoof impact as speeds increase through these fractions. Fastest I've gone is :12s, and so I'm unable to comment on the feel on board as speeds increase to :11s and :10s, but will presume there's continues to be an increase in force but that it's probably smaller as the speed increases faster than :12.

I say that the increases in impact faster than :12s would be a lesser percentage increase thant e.g. the 20% increase between :13s and 12s because the impact that you feel on board in :12s is very dramatic to the point its hard for me to visualize that the impact could physically be much harder than it is going :12s. A little maybe, but not a lot. Just couldn't be without the horse's legs flying apart. Just as a wild guess I'd suppose a horse doing :10 and change might be undergoing an impact of 13,200 lbs./sq. inch.

The next question is whether the load increase on the cannon as you go through these fractions causes a simultaneous and equal reaction in bone tissue in terms of remodeling. Does the bone remodel more in terms of quantity and quality doing :13s on up to :10s? Conversely, just because the load per square inch is greater do we necessarily get an equivalent increase in remodeling? Since we're without studies, again, guesswork.

My thought process goes something like this:

:15s--7500lbs./sq.inch--bone grows thicker and denser

:14s--8800lbs/sq.inch--same reaction--bone is growing thicker and denser

:13s--9600lbs/sq.inch--denser, but, I'd start to suspect a lesser % increase in terms of thickness. At this speed I might guess the bone has reached about 88% of its maximum thickness.

:12s--12000lbs/sq.inch--at this point I'd guess that both bone density and size are reaching optimum levels in terms of what the bone is capable. Can we think 92-93% maximum bone density is reached in :12s, with increase in bone size maybe to 95% of what the bone is capable.

:11s and 10s--again I'm thinking lesser % increases in loading with only slight increases in density and size.

While I'm positive the numbers above if tested would be inaccurate, the analysis remains regardless of what the actual numbers are. And so, if you look closely at these assumptions, which hopefully are close to being valid, it's fairly easy to extrapolate how fast we need to go to get sufficient fracture resistance for that 1.25 mile race 1st Sat. in May. I'll give that speed next post.

Training: Every time I get my hopes up that we can begin serious training another deep freeze blows in. That happened yesterday down to 8 degrees, and we were off after two successive days of being able to get in some work. If the weather pattern stays this active--we've got 4 precipitation events scheduled in the next 15 days--we just are unable to train here. We can maintain a modicum of fitness, but serious race training, unable. I'm gaging this and will post on the weather problem and my solution.

Bone Remodeling at 12,000 lbs/sq.inch

If all the variables for our Derby prospect except speed remain equal, i.e. distance, frequency of breezing, track surface, shoes, rider skill and weight, and so on, does it make any difference how fast the horse breezes in terms of fracture resistance? How do we sift this out?

First, look at this photo again

The exercised calves have developed thicker cannons, and the researchers assume bone of superior quality. May we presume that this remodeling continues through the fractions as the speeds become faster and faster so that exercising exclusively in :12/f will produce significantly stronger bone than doing :15s. Why? Tom Ivers extracted from somewhere that racing cannon bones load up at 12,000 lbs./square inch. Consider this statement:

"Obviously, at lesser speeds we have fewer lbs./sq. inch, less concussion and less need of the bone to remodel."

It's tough to use the word "obviously" above because we're without studies. Please allow me to confide, if you're a rider, it is indeed obvious.

I may relate the experience of riding a horse down the race track at various fractions. You start out e.g. with a nice striding animal such as Redattore in "On The Muscle" at the slow gallop and you get a feathery feeling of power gliding down the track with the horses footfall. As the speed increases there is a gradual but perceptive change of the footfall of the front legs from "flicking" at the track surface to pounding, and whatever you would describe the "betweens".

At what speed does ground "flicking" end and concussive pounding begin? You start to definitely feel it on board when the horse is doing :15s. By :14s you're very definitely getting a "hit" of the front cannon onto the track surface with every stride. By :13s the hits start to jar the horse slightly, and by the time you get to :12s, well, you understand Patrick Valenzuela in the opening scenes of "On The Muscle" doing the sign of the cross as he enters the track. at :12s you both hear and feel the concussive pounding of the front cannons and also feel a definite jarring with every stride that is, shall we say, concerning, if you're on board.

So, the question becomes whether a Drysdale breezing a horse in :13s is going to get the same bone remodeling effects of a Baffert doing sub :12s. Answer to me is an unqualified "no". I'd guess, just based on feel while on board that the concussive effect of a :13 compared to a :12 is about 20% less, and thus 9600 lbs/sq. inch instead of 12,000. Let's concede that 9600 lbs/sq. inch is going to cause some significant remodeling, but, is it enough? Next Post.

Training: Finally we get out of the deep freeze today. 44 degrees supposedly though it felt more like 34. The horses after a few days off due to weather ran lightly over the hard ground in the Astride paddock. I'm moving the under tack venue to the Astride since we'll be in a complete mud mess soon elsewhere. Took me the rest of the daylight to get all the gear to the Astride, and so we'll commence, hopefully, continuous under tack work to the first race starting tomorrow on Valentine's day.

Speed And Fracture Resistance

Nothing about equine exercise matters except there be sufficient fracture resistance that will stand up to a race. We train cannon bones if we want to keep our horse racing.

The studies show the remodeling effects of exercise, but that's as far as they really go. I have yet to read anything that there may be bare minimums that the training has to achieve in terms of speed, distance, frequency or combos of these three training variables.

I'll take speed first as our ever vigilant trainer, lacking scientific studies, sends out our Derby prospect. How fast, Mr (or Ms.) trainer do we breeze to get past that point of fatal weakness in the bone structure? Or can we say for sure that we even need to worry about breezing speed provided our distance and frequency is up to snuff?

My belief is that regardless how far or how often our horse breezes, for injury prevention we MUST achieve a certain minimum speed or otherwise we have a horse at risk. I think we can make that judgment and will dissect it next post.

Training: as we go into our 77th straight day without dry ground here in KC, though afternoon temps finally reached 23 degrees up 10 degrees from yesterday, ground conditions are now so truly horrendous, that today I just avoided things. My horses considering are in decent condition, and I'll start 'em up in the morning, though I'm unsure presently what we can possibly do on this solidly frozen bumpy (with ice) ground.

The Minimum For Fracture Resistance?

Last post I noted the variation in works for Derby contenders on the same day. And of course, as a laughable side note, the very minute I post that Nick Zito never works over 4f the Blood Horse notes a 6f work for Zito's Anak Anakal. Oh well!


But, the point has been the variation in works, different approaches by different noted trainers toward the same goal, and the pestering question, what sort of approach do we take for injury prevention? Is it any "any of the above", or is one superior to another?

For discussion purposes, let's note some possible approaches to working for the Derby. Assume each of the below contenders races at over 1 mile once a month to Derby time. Here is the breezing schedule for four of them:

1. Frankel's :48 once a week.
2. Drysdale's 1:45 mile every 10 days with plenty of 2 minute licks and accelerations in between.
3. Mandella's 4-7f :12.5/f works every 10 days.
4. Pletcher's 5f in 1:02 for three weeks, then race, then 3 weeks of no works and start again.

Quite a contrast there if you look at it closely. I'll give my answer in advance that "none of the above" is truly effective for fracture resistance and give my reasons, and get to Burch and Carl Nafzger and Street Sense next posts.

Training: On a very cold Monday with yet more precipitation promised, we're off.

And, More Facts

Zito never breezes more than 4f, and the second I'd finished typing those words does Tricky Nick breeze Derby contender Anak Natal 6f in 1:14 2/5 at Palm Meadows. And there's War Pass working 4f seven days after his prior breeze just when I said it's written concrete that Zito breezes ever 9 or 10 days.
Then just to rub more salt in the RR wounds, there's Into Mischief lacking the speed and stamina to catch Georgie Boy in the San Vincente almost to the hour that I'd posted that horse's works were the best.
What's going on here. RR posts one thing and the horses and trainers do another. A few qualifiers in order, perhaps. First, we'll see whether Zito keeps this up, doubt he will, but, perhaps Big Nick has decided upon being this year's Carl Nafzger and breezing once a week. I'll just volunteer that should Zito follow through it will be a huge break with his tradition.
And, had I but realized that Mandella trains Into Mischief, that's all you need to know about that colt. Mandella will win if the race is without any speed which usually is a big if. Mandella trains his horses slow and gets mad when they breeze fast. Watch the DVD.

A Few More Facts

Here are some Derby prospects working on the same day a weekend or so ago:

Tale Of Ekati: 5f in 1:03

War Pass: 4f in :46.8

Into Mischief: 7f in 1:25.6

Maimonides (photo): 6f in 1:12

Please notice the wide range of distances and speeds, nor do we know whether the works were steady or e.g. contained intial slow fractions with the horse coming home in sub :12s.

What were the trainers thinking? Or, more relevant to my subject, were any of them thinking injury prevention?

Unnecessary to note that we'd have to have a whole pattern of works and gallops to draw any conclusions since any one single work may reflect a number of unknown variables most of them probably depending on where the trainer thought the horse was at the time.

But, it's first of February. The Derby is only three months off. If I'm a trainer, time's a wasting, and I want to maximize both my performance prep and preserve my horse.

In analyzing the above works my opinion is that they show more the modus operendi of their trainers than they say anything about where the particular horse is in it's training.

First there's War Pass doing the typical Zito :48. Does that trainer ever do anything else besides 4f, and does he really believe in this day and time with trainers really training their horses (as opposed to the soft mid nineties when Zito won) that 4f breezes every 10 days to two weeks is going to cut it in the Derby? I'd predict War Pass will do 4fs right on through. My experience, trainers never change their stripes.

Then there's Baffert, and Maimonides, pictured, and whoops bucked the shins of a 4.6 million dollar son of Vindication. Maybe should have stayed on the astro-turf Bob. But, very nice :12s for 6f here to bring the colt back. This is also typical Baffert, ratcheting up his training for a big race.

And then my personal hero, the venerable Barclay Tagg with the typically soft Tagg Breeze. What are you doing Barclay? I doubt he knows.

My interest here is which of these works is best in terms of injury prevention for the Derby distance. It's a no-brainer. Into Mischief. Both distance and speed there, but, I have to lay a little more groundwork before reaching some final conclusions on what it is exactly we have to do to get sufficient bone remodeling for fracture resistance.

Training: I'm just leaving the Testosterone Nation website considering this book:
and how nice had we the weather to consider building an efficient athlete. Then I see Accuweather and our 13 degree temps. The horses are off today. Ridiculous ground conditions and more precip on the way. I'll have a word to say about weather and trying to train in this climate.
2/7: 7 or 8 2f bursts riderless at 85% speed in Astride paddock for both horses.
2/8: off
2/9: 36 hours after last work about 15 minutes of play galloping in the Astride. Went pretty well. Decent conditioning considering the speed work on 2/7, and what's coming weatherwise.
2/10: off.

Nailing Things Down

Calf cannons at left. This is other than new as countless studies have shown the effect of exercise on bone density and bone formation, and also that changing the geometry of the bone changes its resistance.

We also know that lack of exercise causes remodeling the other way in that at some point after exercise is reduced or eliminated bone resorption in the way of decrease in bone mineral density and actual loss of bone laticework proceeds. Exercise we know produces rounder denser bone. The intensive calf study I've just referred to concludes that with the 50 meter a day sprints given the young calves the exercise changed the quantity but not the quality of the bone, and the authors speculate had the intense exercise been of greater volume and been carried on over a longer period whether they might also have seen differences in bone quality.

Another study I bumped into out of New Zealand, Massey University, conducted a well known study with 14 two year old fillies dividing them into two control groups with 7 confined to paddocks and the other 7 galloped with steadily increasing speed and intensity through the 13 weeks of the study. Though there was fast work twice a week only in the last month, in just three months the exercised group had achieved 37% more cannon bone mass than the sedentary group. Another study in 2005 "scanning technology has shown that horses with greater cross-sectional area of cannon bone combined with more bone in the dorsal cortex are better able to withstand the forces of impact and loading".

For race training of course, the question remains, how do we get there, and once there how do we keep what we've got.

A couple of posts ago I noted the softer training of Neil Drysdale in terms of speed and frequency compared to Bobby Frankel, and my observation that Drysdales horses generally are around short times instead of lengthy stays. Overall we may observe that the TYPE of exercise chosen for the race horse is going to have an impact on soundness.

Here is one interesting tidbit I found at the Google:

"Collagen is a tissue component that demands both time and adequate stimulus in order to strengthen. It is a very specific tissue responding almost precisely in kind to the demands put upon it. As far as the collagen in bone and tendons is concerned a 2:30 mile is not the same stressor as a :24 quarter, and all the 2:30 miles in the world will not properly prepare a bone for a :24 quarter."

So, the questions, will a :26 quarter prepare the bone for a :24 quarter? Will a :48 once a week prepare for a 1:49 mile and an eight? Will a 1:46 mile every 9 days per Drysdale prepare for a 1:34 mile on Saturday afternoon? We have the answers to these questions only in our breakdown statistics.

Training:
The farm is a pool of water and snow over frozen ground. The place was a total mess even before the additional 3 inches of precip on Tuesday. But, the Astride Paddock retained just enough consistency that last night over crispy snow we got exactly the sort of w/o we needed. The horses had been prepped nutritionally for speed, and they were into it, breezing themselves riderless about 2f at a time at about 85% speed and a little faster when they passed me throwing my soccer balls. We did five or six of these, and with the coming melt that will put the whole farm out of commission for several days, last night was the sort of fast twitch work we had to have. Very encouraging. Rollin' Rodney the 2 yr. old looks especially fast. Passed on the tack work due to the crunch conditions.

Astounding

After my last post, I was fairly surprised just this morning to stumble on to the 2/07/08 "International Thoroughbred Digest" article:

"No bones About It: The Prevention of Catastrophic Bone Injuries In Racehorses".

This article notes that Dr. Antonio Cruz et. al. associated with Ontario Veterinary College, have just commenced a study at Woodbine where they will monitor equine leg bones under various exercise prescriptions to determine bone density changes and injury. This is astounding news. Never mind that it took 'em till the year 2008, but these people are actually trying to develop an in shed-row monitoring system to evaluate bone remodeling and bone injury. Some quotes from Dr. Cruz:

"The number one cause of poor performance and career-ending injury in race horses is catastrophic bone failure"

"It is known that up to 30 percent of racehorses entering training leave within three months" (and, i'd add my own musing that close to 100% receive some kind of injury the first three months they're in the conventional shed row.)

"The ultimate goal (of this) research is to reduce such catastropihc injuries. Cruz believes that if trainers can monitor the strength of horse's bones on a routine basis, monthly, e.g., that potential career ending injuries MIGHT BE LARGELY PREVENTED."

"Over the next two years Cruz et. al. will take the knowledge gained and evaluate the changing bones of 2 and 3 year old TBs on a monthly basis at Woodbine during racing season. Specifically the research will moniotor the cannon bones and joint health of these horses and WILL DETERMINE THEIR RESPONSE TO EXERCISE INTENSITY AND DETECT HOW THEY ADAPT TO IT."

Cruz foresees a battery of affordable stall-side tests being developed into routine practice in the shed row to screen for bone injury. While Cruz might be a little overly optimistic as to the practices of our training community (Lukas kicking Tom Ivers and his infrared thermography machine out of his shedrow comes to mind.), I was truly astounded in this article to at last find some support as to the basic tenor of the blog. I have some more studies and will continue next post.

Training: heading to the farm to ride 'em in the snow. We'll see how it goes.

Minimum Work For Fracture Resistance

In my February 2 post I made the bold statement that you're unable to train a horse in the manner of Neil Drysdale and keep the horse healthy. Since I am without any direct knowledge as to Drysdale's exercise prescriptions, this statement is meant in another way than as a comment on Drysdale training. Let's take Drysdale's name out of it and simplify it indicating the following sort of training:

long 2 mile gallops in :17-:18/f
occasional two minute gallops
every 9 or 10 day mile breezes in 1:46 at a steady :13.25/f

Assume on the above that the horse sees the track as many times as a Lukas horse, which would be average 18 times per month.

In terms of volume this is far more work than what I call "conventional" training. There's a lot to like here along with several gigantic caveats.

But first, how do we analyze this sort of training program in terms of injury prevention? We're concerned with:

1. soft tissue injuries, bowed tendons, suspensories and the like.
2. fractures and chips.

I'm unconcerned so much with soft tissue injuries simply because they primarily are caused by carelessness and stupidity. I'll elaborate on that at some point, but for now, suffice to say you can conduct your training so that you're extremely unlikely to get a bow or a suspensory. Just never happens provided you give certain minimum work and observe a few necessary guidelines.

Fracture and chips are far more problematic. I will assume that for true fracture resistance racing speeds and race galloping will require a certain minimum level of bone remodeling. This means that the metabolically active bone tissue, mineralized and unmineralized, has produced sufficient density and tensile strength in terms of collagen fibrils, bone glue, sacrificial bonds, and mineralized bone lattice that the bone can resist fracture under the various compressive and torsional forces to which it is subject at race speed.

We already know that athletes have denser and heavier bone than non-athletes. I only need to pick up the front legs of my 13 year old Groovin' Wind who has trained at speed seemingly forever and simply marvel at the thicker, stronger leg structure compared to my youngsters. Translate: the youngsters have a ways to go before they achieve the leg bone fracture resistance of Groovin' Wind. The question would be, how far do we have to go and at what point do we have enough.

Studies? Zip of course, and trainers can thus only do guess work in deciding when enough work is enough work, and the leg bones may withstand fracture at speed.

I'll continue with this next post.

Training:
2/4/08 Art was walked under tack. It was to be trot, but the tack work has been inconsistent to the point the horse is difficult to control. I have an old rider. We're being careful. Rod also did some tack work with the lung and long lines, and bellying. That was the exercise for the day.
2/5/08 Everytime we get our hopes up weatherwise, this: 1.5 inches of rain followed by 4 inches of snow. It was to be an off day anyway: off.
2/6/08 I drove back to the farm intending to run 'em in the snow in the Astride paddock, but the snow was too deep. Off.

Before Continuing

A couple of posts ago someone made a comment how easy it is to pick on this or that trainer, and I'd like to make some response. The blog has previously documented the horrendous injury rates in conventional training barns (see summary of these posts below) concentrating particularly on the barns of Lukas and Mandella. There is without any doubt a serious injury problem that has evicted in my short time tens of thousands of owners from the sport. The blog is now, finally, at the point were I'm identifying the whys and wherefores.

This is other than to "pick" on anybody or cast blame, easy as that might be, because the aim here is to identify training that will keep horses running. Every trainer out there knows, things are far more complex than just identifying a few injury stats and making some suppositions. This is a very tough game.

And, regardless of what the injury stats are, or success or lack of success here and there, there will always be trainers, as there are coaches in human athletics, who go about their merry destructive ways and just fail to get it. This is the nature of athletics, and at some point down the road I'll do a series on what makes a person a good or bad coach.

For the present the goal of the blog, which has already identified the injury problem, is now to get to the root of it.

Here are some prior posts on this blog identifying injury rates with Lukas and Mandella:
Across the board, what's the injury rate: 2/4/07
Lukas: 1/27, 1/28 and 1/31/07.
Mandella: 1/24/07 and in particular 2/1/07.
Generally: 2/21, 2/22/ and 2/25/07

Our training:
2/3/07 Riderless with Art carrying 30 lbs Astride the horses galloped back and forth on wet pasture at decent clips for about 20 minutes with plenty of rest between as RR is running back and forth to catch them.
2/4/07: Rod (2 yr. old) will do some simple lung work. Art will trot under tack for about 10 minutes with rest between. First under tack trot since i'm unable to recall when due to the weather.

Sunday Photos

On Superbowl Sunday it's dreary and wet in downtown KC.
The pre-workout meal.
Everything is ready. Nob is awol so we'll go with the Astride.
Big Art is pumped up and ready to roll.
The Astride Paddock, too wet to use today.
And in the main field, along the tree line, they're off.
Nice back and forth for 20 min.

Benchmarks: Frankel and Drysdale

What sort of track work will produce "fracture resistance"?

Absent studies our old blood hound has come up with some helpful information.

The track variables are:
1. frequency
2. distance
3. speed

In one corner we have the Hall of Fame Trainer on the left who has patterned his training after Whittingham, and I'm really trying to think of a Bobby Frankel horse that has been injured in mid-campaign. I'm sure there are some, but from Ginger Punch, Ghostzapper, Bertrando, Megdalio El Doro and on and on, I'm unable to think of any.

I became aware of Frankel as a handicapper. Here was the one trainer at that time in the early '80s whose horses were showing consistent works. What does Frankel do? I'm without a clue what he does on slow gallop days, but the Daily Racing Form told us in those days Frankel breezed racing horses like clockwork every 7 days 4f in :48. Once in a blue moon you'd see one going farther, faster or slower. From this corner, I'm without any stats, but would bet my life Frankel has a significantly better injury rate than Lukas.

The smiling gentleman in the other corner would be the erudite Hall of Fame trainer, Neil Drysdale of Fuaisichi Pegasus fame, Read his Hall of Fame page an you'll also see Princess Rooney, and A.P. Indy. Drysdale is known for extreme patience, long slow works in the 1:44-1:46 range, and never a fast work, and also doing lots of two minute gallops and, by my understanding, a fair amount of 2 mile galloping on slow days; more volume than most conventional trainers, but less speed.

Drysdale's training is quite a contrast to Frankel. And, hats off to him to an extent. But consider it most noteworthy that if you look at what Drysdale has done, with a couple of exceptions, none of his horses are ever around very long. Even A.P. Indy who made it to the Breeder's Cup had constant problems along the way. No coincidence in this for RR. You simply are unable to train like Drysdale and keep a horse healthy. Can't be done. This point will be clear following this series of posts.

Our training:
Mark February 2 as hopefully the first small baby step on the way to the track for my youngsters. The weather seems to have turned. We were mid 40s today, and though we have coming one rain event after another, we'll be able to continue in this beginning stage over wet ground. So, drum roll, and recommence the training log:
2/2/08 Art: nice fairly fast romp in the Astride Paddock with the other two, then 10 minutes walk under tack.
Rod: Same as Art in the Astride Paddock. Rod was bellied under tack. He's 15' 2.5" and just barely big enough to take on Mr. Nob.

More How Lukas Does It

So, in the late '80s, off Lukas's own training logs, and per the interview with Staaden that "I don't work horses", which Lukas repeated three times to the incredulous Aussie Vet for Tommie Smith, we have by best estimate:

3.5 breezes or races a month
18 additional gallops at about :17s.

This is "heavy" volume stuff for a conventional trainer. How do we evaluate?

Per usual the sport has too far to go yet to have any studies. You'd think The Grayson Jockey Club, New Bolton, the folks at Cornell, or UCal-Davis, any of them would at some point have studied the injury causing effects of conventional training as exemplified by the Lukas model, but, nada. Closest we have is the extensive testing done in the Maryland Shin Study concluding the need for fast work every 3 or 4 days for very young horses to prevent bucked shins.

So, for any reader, you're about to get another dose of RR evaluations. But, I'll look at the thing closely and with care.

Begin maybe by asking some questions, in terms of fracture resistance:
1. What's minimum required frequency per month? What about distance and speed?
2. Is there a maximum frequency we need to avoid exceeding, and again, what of distance and speed?
3. What effect, if any, does the volume, distance, and speed of slow galloping have?

I'll start looking at this next post.

Our training:
Wednesday Art had a shoe problem, and yesterday after dentistry I just skipped. Recommenced today, Friday. Art got away from me on the way to the Astride paddock, and did so three more times. He learned that little trick last year right after I bought him. The boogey man was out in full force. I went with the flow as they were all hepped up, and we got some decent pasture work, and then some Astride work with Art as Mr. Nob the rider was awol. It was cold again, but, looks like we're on the uptick with the weather.