Breezing Frequency: Methodology

And so, the hated Kansas Jayhawks are the NCAA basketball champs as RR endures all these celebrants. We take our border rivalries seriously in these parts.

Plus I now have to get down to the nitty gritty of how often we need to breeze this racing prospect to get fracture resistance while I'm still enduring the image of Jayhawk shots swishing through the net right at the last second.

Without getting (yet) into the question of how often we want to breeze the horse to get a good performance, the question for the moment is how often need we breeze the horse to obtain fracture resistance, and the sub-question there as to how we can even tell where the horse is at any point in time in terms of bone remodeling.

I'm supposing there are ways to scientifically monitor bone development. X-rays, Thermography, bone scans, etc. But, for most of us on most days we use the simple "hand" test which involves placing the palm of the hand on the knees, cannons and on down to "feel" the heat that generates there post exercise. The more heat or course the more that is happening on the cellular level.

Trainers monitor canon bone heat for each work and as they go. There are two types of heat and you have to distinguish. These large animals generate a lot of heat in their fast works. A racing horse will be hot to the touch in its musculature immediately post race, and a lot of this heat emanates into the legs. The trainer thus needs to distinguish exercise heat from bone remodeling or injury heat.

My own method: exercise heat generally will have dissipated a hour post exercise, and I begin serious "hand" monitoring of the leg bones at that point. I feel for temperature in terms of degrees, but also intensity, area covered, and type. I've learned there's a subtle difference between heat caused by normal remodeling and heat caused by any injury e.g. bucked shin healing itself. The length of time heat exists in the cannons post exercise, e.g. 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours and on will tell the trainer both whether the work produced any sort of injury and the stage this horse is in in terms of bone remodeling. Quite obviously, the less heat which stays for the least time will indicate the greatest advances in the bone remodeling process. An extremely bone fit horse by my experience will have only negligible cannon bone heat (other than exercise heat) post race and this mild heat will completely dissipate in 12 hours.

Thus, heat production and heat dissipation post exercise at present is our primary indication of the bone remodeling process, and thus the manner and method we use to make the judgment as to how quickly the horse should work next. I'll expand on this next post.

Training:
Mon. 4/7: Rod's normal day off. Art still off with his chest.