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.