The Pamplemoose

I'm typing this before today's Sham stakes having just watched The Pamplemoose, shown here at about the 20:40 mark:
http://www.bloodhorse.com/

*HRTV Video Pursuit of the Crown.

and thinking that the free spirit trainer Julio Canani might be having a flash of concern over that ground pounding stride. Beautiful horse, and encouraging to see one competing that's fat like my Rollin' Rodney, though trade competitive spirit with them. TB Times today shows these works for T.P.

1/17 San Rafael
1/28 36.20
2/4 46.6
2/11 58.8
2/18 1:12.4
2/24 36.6
2/28 Sham Stakes

Competitively it seems like a nice program.

Training:
2/27 Off. 2/28 Off. 5 inches of snow. Art possibly is over his hoof problem.

The Pure Horseman

Turns out Kersley trains only gallopers these days. There's Google info Kersley survived his kick in the face, barely, and he attributes recent success to scientific training, including heart rate monitoring.!

Kersley discussing his horse Morasco:


Training: Art did a few riderless spurts on soft ground. Still limping at the trot slightly. With grass too wet to gallop Rod did about 6 x 2f riderless spurts as fast as we were able to get him to go. Some full speed here and there.

Fred Kersley On Overtraining

My bone posting has run smack dab into some serious lack of understanding. Researching at the moment. Here's an interesting interview from Ross Staaden's book "Winning Trainers" with standardbred trainer Fred Kersely of Perth Australia (photo at left). There were four Fred Kersley's training standardbreds since the early 1900s, and this latest one won 15+ training titles by 1988 including riding and training in tens of thousands of races. Possibly Staaden's Kersley interviews were the highlight of his book.

As an interesting sidelight Kersley apparently was kicked in the face and seriously injured in 2006 when he was training gallopers. Unknown how that came out.

I've given a reply to Kersley as Tom Ivers might have have with the Ivers 3 x per day breezing in mind, and my own thoughts following the Kersley comments:

Undertraining and ovetraining
Ross Staaden:"Are there some things you could point to that you consider were errors you were making in your training early in your career? Overtraining or undertraining?

Fred Kersley: Undertraining. The attitude of the old-time trainer was that a horse should train conservatively and save his best for race day. As though some magical thing would happen and allow him to race twice as well as he really could. I grew up on that and it was a mistake, I think. That logic doesn't sit comfortably any more. Mind you, it might have worked for them because they carried an enormous worm burden in those days--all horses did--and they were difficult to maintain in good flesh, so it probably did help them a bit. Also I'm not saying they should be overtrained either. I don't think that works well. That was probably one of the attitudes I had to break out of.

RS: Did you find you oscillated, that you undertrained for a while, and then you'd gone the opposite way-you'd heard that heavy training was the go, and perhaps pushed a lot of horses to the point where they trained off?

FK: Yes, I went through that stage.

RS: Was that educational, though, in that you got to see what were the earlier signs of overtraining and undertraining, and so on?

FK: Yes, and you don't have to be very smart to work it out either. It's so bloody simple.

RS: What would you summarize as the signs of overtraining?

FK: Well, you bugger the horse up.

RS: Not a very specific term. In what sort of ways? It just won't eat or it's sore?

FK: I think understanding the horse-the first sign I think will come out of the tucker box. If he's starting to get too picky on his food, you feed him and he doesn't want to look at it, and you look at him and he's got a sort of dull look in his eye. It's really quite simple to see there's something wrong. He's so tired he doesn't want to eat and he can't run anyhow. Within a week of overtraining he goes to the races and he can't run. I mean, he tells you pretty quick if you're only going to listen. But some of the trainers go harder still and then the horse could be buggered up for life, and I've seen that.

RS: They show it first by what--fading in the races?

FK: Yes.

RS: And does that precede things like not eating up at home?

FK: Come in at about the same time.

RS: So, you'd hop in with the thermometer at that point?

FK: Well, I'm not even big on the thermometers because I don't get to that stage now, I see it happening and I start to handle it before I make him sick.

RS: Does it show much on the track before they get to that failure to eat?

FK: No. A horse can work brilliantly and come off the track, and then you find you've done too much. It is a very fine line we tread in overtraining. One of the other signs, I often think, is a horse that blows too much. I mean, if he was tired before he started , no wonder he's blowing. you've made him really really tired.

RS: And undertraining, what would you see happening there?

FK: Its probably better to undertrain to some extent. The horse is nice and fresh, he will want to run a little bit, he can go okay. He's not going to run at his best, but he's going to make a pretty good effort at it. You're probably setting up some shin soreness factors and that type of thing, though it's going to take a little while to surface. But, I still think, if you're going to make a mistake, you may as well undertrain because it's easier to go on to a higher level of fitness than to pick up something that's stressed.

RS: The racing is eventually going to bring it to some level of fitness.

FK: Sure. All of your logic ought to be that you stay just this side of where you're heading. Because if you get to the other side of where you've heading, it's no good. No good for anyone.

Iver's posthumous reply: Kersley, god love him, merely confuses the killing of gut bacteria with overtraining. You avoid this by a combo of quick cool down of the horse post workout--i.e. 1. when you leave the track take the shortest route to the nearest water spiggot, quickly remove tack and hose horse, or better yet, wet him down while still on the track. 2. administer various pro-biotics to restore gut bacteria asap post race.

Me: I think Ivers correctly interprets Kersley's remarks, but will observe that at times even with due diligence gut bacteria die and you get a dull eyed off-feed horse. Some horses seem more susceptible than others. As to overtraining generally note our human Olympic teams where to be a serious competitor requires training virtually to become a full time job. May we reach in equine training a day when competition is so fierce for gallopers (as opposed to Kersley's standardbreds), that trainers to compete indeed will start reaching that fine line of true animal abusing overtraining? While you can see this coming, I'm wondering if there are limits to the equine skeleton that will stop us before we reach the point.

Training:
Wed: 2/25 Spring in KC this week, and it looks as if the coming rain will miss us. Rod: More accelerations. 4 x 2f with 3f walk trot between. Interesting this post on overtraining since the last heat today was done under protest (by the horse). But he reached :16s for a few strides here and there. Art was walked 2f under tack though is still a little sore.

Chaucer's Seargent Of The Law

"Nowher so bisy a man as he there nas; And yet he semed bisier than he was."

For the delay in bone posting, my excuse--busy--and sticking to it. Paul Hansma website just posted all their hundreds of pages of recent bone research.

A few 2/24 photos:

The gang's all here, except the racoons.
14 yr. old Groovin' Wind ready for some pony practice.
Rod, the (dreaded) fat, lazy horse.
Nob's clutter post workout.
Training: Rod: first under tack accelerations: 3 x 1.5 with 3f of trot-walk between each. Planned his :21s up to :18. Probably got :17s. Decent! Art still limps slightly at the trot.

Martin Wolfson

After KH comment, a post just for fun.

Which one is Martin Wolfson the horse trainer? One photo is Martin Wolfson, the Associate Professor of Economics at Notre Dame, the other the horse trainer graduate of Miami Dade County Junior College that won 30% of races and trains light according to Andy Beyer. Who would you trust with your horse?

I've handicapped enough Wolfson horses to verify the light training part. Nor has Wolfson impressed me or been successful in races I've handicapped, but small sample. Is he a good trainer, and how do you define that?

I tend to react to clues. I've been around, I'm confident. Stuff has to hit my receptors that I approve of. The M. Wolfson info is building. In this day and time - e.g.- can we trust a trainer who lacks a website?

And, by Beyer, is there anything wrong with a successful track trainer rhapsodizing over his "light" training when horses are falling like flies from light training? Well, unknown to me. Perhaps, as Beyer speculates, Wolfson's light training and husbandry is somehow superior as it would hardly surprise--just check the websites--that you can get sore mis-cared for horses out of the Plecher and Mott barns.

I'd like to see more. The part that intrigues is Wolfson's weight lifting past, and possibly present. Beyer, the obvious non-athlete, completely misses the state of body building nutrition these days which basically makes steroids irrelevant. Is it possible that body builder Wolfson would miss this stuff:

https://www.t-nation.com/free_online_store

and fail to understand the performance enhancing effects of Citrulline malate, L-Leucine, and Beta Alinine etc. Try a Beta Alinine supplement sometime and see what it does to your performance. Click Surge, Product Facts for ingredients.

I'd like to know what Wolfson's injury % is. The stat that matters to me is wins per horses in the barn to show the super trainer. Does Wolfson deserve Beyer's skepticism? I'm glad someone is taking these trainers on. Here's Beyer's article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302714.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

and, BTW, M. Wolfson the professor above is on the left, the horse trainer at right.

Training

I'm still here.
Training since Thurs.

Lincoln State Fair meet May 21 is looking like a good fit for us. Next bone post soon.

Rod: Lazy Rod's silver lining, Nob says he seems to enjoy his tack work. Transition from riderless-tack combo to all tack hopefully starts yesterday though occasional riderless bursts till we get to the track. Did every other day riderless speed work + tack work through Sunday. And, first acceleration under tack planned for tonight.

Art: without a limp this morning. Lucky with him if we lose only a week.

Good Grief!

Thurs., I arrive to this:

Continued below.

The Diagnosis

What's the problem? Before removing front right shoe I noticed mild front right tendon swelling thinking oh, oh, after last night's work.Simultaneously the slight whiff of infection somewhere.

Horse flinching over the whole sole to the hoof testers. Red hue in photo is indeed red. Notice red line at toe. All this is new since 2 days ago shoeing.

And, ahh, here's the culprit--horse flinches severely pressing that cut on the right frog near the apex that looks like an aberrant knife cut, though Nob vehemently denies. Possible source of infection running up leg.

Conclude, could have anything from abscess yet to show, infected frog cut, generalized sole bruising or a combo. I'm concerned!

Bute adminstered, antibiotics tomorrow, and here's Amart once again again sporting his epsom salt boot.

Remodeling: Humans/Horses II

The process is "bone remodeling". The end point, hopefully, race appropriate fracture resistance. We want to know how to get there absent any significant research. We speculate.

Human athletes activate bone osteoblasts and osteoclasts over time that gradually build up stressed bone per the diagram. Does the same process occur with the geometrically greater loads on our horses?

The June-Sept. 2008 blog posts estimated effects of one single breeze on the cannon bone. And now the plan is to view the process through multiple breezes to note both insufficiencies and optimization!

Start this with a brief review of the single breeze/race.

Whenever our horse heads to the track--I'm sort of considering Zenyatta in all those John Shirrefs You Tube videos-- cannon bone characteristics involve a specific state of being in a moment in time that will respond particularly to the coming breeze. Conclude: differing states of bone development react differently We may view the coming exercise with trepidation for the softly trained horse. For a "hard body" trained horse as TC winner Assault we may have limited worries.

Bone materials will sense forces and undergo protective changes as the horse runs down the track. Sensing occurs both mechanically to include signaling by fluid flow, and by electrical signaling at the atomic level and through nerves.

In response there are macro and local cellular reactions involving tightening and girding within the cells, cell to cell and within the whole structure including compaction and rebounding as well as twisting and bending in response to concussive, compressive and torsional forces coming at bone tissue from all directions.

Reactions to all this within the tissue vary with the type tissue. The hardened mineral lattice, limited by its nature and structure, will gird, compress, and push back to some extent, and we've noted this mattress spring effect decreases incrementally with each impact producing a little less bounce back than the one before. Within the lattice there is vibration, oscillation, and heat build up and release and all the mechanical-physical-electrical consequences resulting therefrom.

The softer materials, specifically the ductile rubbery bone collagen with each cell in various states of mineralization, and also the bone glue proteins that help hold everything together, have by their nature and greater fluidity differing reactions. Movement, gliding cell to cell, and significant rearrangement during the 240 strides of the breeze/race are in play with these softer tissues. Heat build up initially provides malleability and absorption but at some critical point heat causes these materials to become less sticky and supportive.

Regards these materials the breeze generates mechanical engineering factors-- stress intensity, shear modes, tear mode, the brittle-ductile transition phase as the number of thermal cycles increase and the structure approaches"critical strain" where there may be rupture peaks or peaking and the consequences that one cell may give way then another and another with less and less force necessary to rupture each succeeding cell as the rupture process proceeds. Yet, particular cracks are harmless as long as the entire structure maintains enough integrity to contain them--a crack, e.g. hits an osteon which stops crack propagation at that point.

You may gather in conclusion that the above processes for our horse differ significantly from what happens with the human runner. I'll be bold and speculate that in humans even at top 100 meter sprinting loads almost none of the processes exist that work during the breeze/race in our horse cannons.

Moreover, as my September posts noted, possibly the most significant difference between human and racing horse athletes is that in the particular event for the horse there is actually a percentage of cellular damage that occurs that I've guessed as being 1% destruction of bone cells spread diffusely through the cannon for any one event(in the "trained" bone).

The breeze/race for our horse thus differs substantially in effect as does our sprint race on our human tibia. So much so that I believe the remodel process between these species differs significantly. How, next post.

Training:
Wed. 2/18: the planned first tack accelerations postponed due to ground conditions. Riderless 1-2f full speed bursts: 3 x2. Will be able to get trailer out of mud today!

Workout

The video is a failed attempt to show some riderless fast work (conducted in lieu of our first planned acceleration under tack, canceled due to slippery turf.) since very fast burst shows moving trees instead of horses. A little light speed today so we can commence tack work the tomorrow.

Lordings

Thought of the day:
"Lordings," quod he, "in chirches whan I preche,
I peyne me to han an hauteyn speche,
And ring it out as round as gooth a belle,
For I can al by rote that I telle.
My theme is alwey oon, and evere was
Radix malorum est Cupiditas."1

-from Pardoner's Prologue of The Canterbury Tales.

1 Avarice (the love of money) is the root of all evil.

Horse/Human Bone Remodeling

If we take a wild guess and suppose that understanding bone remodeling might be useful/crucial in injury prevention, and acknowledging the paucity of equine studies(last post) the blog launches straight into the RR theory of equine bone remodeling. This will be assisted by available googled human studies such as the illustration above that summarizing basic simple concepts.

The blog noted in the past that at any single moment about 4% of the human skeleton is under construction. As most living tissue, bone undergoes continuing regeneration which at its most basic level consists of osteoclasts tearing down tissue and osteoblasts rebuilding them by creating units called Osteocytes which form larger solid cylyndrical units called osteons. Lengthy osteon fibers rest together to form bone.

Human bone additionally remodels in response to physical stimulus. Take e.g. the recreational six mile human runner generating along their tibia 2-3000 lbs/sq. inch for the 3000+ strides of their run. During the run we can postulate within the bone tissue squeezing, pressure, heat build up, and the accordion effect of engaging and releasing every stride. This is what activates the chemical, electrical, physical load signaling that in turn causes the measurable remodel reactions in individual bone cells and in groups vis a vis their immediate neighbors.

After such a run I'm guessing then the osteoclasts get busy in response, and if that run repeats every day the tear down/rebuild process stays active until sufficient bone is built up to completely absorb the particular stress of the event.

HOWEVER, may we postulate the exceeding tameness of bone remodel for the six mile human recreational runner compared to processes that happening in the cannons of our speeding racehorse. Canon bone remodeling, I'm thinking, has to differ significantly from human osteoclast-blast remodeling. How, next post.

Training:
Mon. 2/16. Riderless warm up then 2f full speed riderless in paddock. Each horse then tacked about 1.4 miles on inconsistent barely thawed pasture including galloping twice up the 30 degree 1.5F hill and some additional gallop. What we might have done anyway despite the weather, but today we'll need some drying or we're going backwards.

Horse Research: Anything New?

Would Tovar's thesis, last post, apply to horses? RR googles "equine bone remodelling" and gets: nothing. Well, slightly incorrect. There are a couple of useful tidbits there from UC Cal Davis that will use later. Yet, multiple high exposure catastrophic break downs and near breakdowns (Rags to Riches/Belmont, War Pass/Wood Memorial), equine bone research, basically zip, nada. How are they faring at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Dr. Antonio Cruz with their Woodbine cannon bone study of 2 and 3 year old racers that I'd noted a couple of years back. Scrolling through Dr. Cruz's website at the Veterinary College, nothing of note there, nothing written, nothing googles with respect to it, and fearing good intentions with this study may have gone awry. Three years back, and we should have heard the results, if there were any.

Will now google Grayson Jockety Club. Anything new there? They appear to be studying worms and equine uterus. Oooops. There's McIlwraith with a fetlock study speculating condylar fractures caused by mishaped joints.

Gluck: they are studying worms too. Oh, and there's one "equine musculoskeltal science" where they're into joint cartilage and osteoarthiritis. That's it.

Can we suppose if there were a major on-going study anywhere that Ray Paulick would blood hound it by now. The problem, of course, there's very few people out there giving much thought to the basic science of equine breakdowns. Veterinarians, let's face it, they're dealing with "procedures". Because you are good at fracture repair--see Larry Bramalage--does it therefore follow that you've given any deep thought to fracture causation, or even if you did think about it that, being a non-athlete, that you'd have any real understanding? Let's give ongoing credit to what's going on at Turfway Park and with Bryce Peckham D.V.M. I know Peckam and I'll be interested in his reaction if he sees Stardom Bound trained by Dutrow walking over from the backstretch in the 2009 Derby. Otherewise, strangely,in this perspective, useful equine science I've seen posted lately appears here:

http://www.horsetrainingscience.blogspot.com/

So, with respect to "equine cannon bone remodeling", looks as if we'll have to again come up with our own speculations aided by what can be found in free human studies. I'll launch into this next post.

Training:
Sun. 2/15: each horse walk-trotted with a few hops for a mile over half frozen pasture. First tack work in 8 days due to weather.

A Cellular Analysis

Understanding bone remodeling at the cellular level hopefully will allow us to make more accurate decisions regards remodeling of our horse's cannons at the macro level. At the cellular level, per my last post on Andres Tovar and his thesis, a mathematical model can be established regarding the interaction of bone cells--cell to cell-or cell unit to cell unit--regards response to stress.

Read through this closely--a little deep, I know, to get an understanding of the point:

"The state of any (bone) cell is determined through interaction with its neighbor through local rules. The state of each cell at the discrete location is defined by the mechanical stimulus Si(t), the error signal ei(t), and the mass fraction xi(t). This is:

Ai(t) = Si(t) ei(t)xi(t)"

Putting this formula into words:

In the existing equilibrium for any cell or group of cells, change = mechanical stimuls x error signals (something abnormal is happening) x mass fraction (the mass and size of the cell).

Thus to get a remodeling reaction an external stimulus causes signals withing the cell or cell group that affect the mass of the cell or group. The manner in which this occurs can be defined in terms of "rules" or, even more specific, "local" rules depending where in the total bone structure the events occur.

This "reaction" to "stimuli" hopefully may vary from optimal to various states of less than optimal depending on the various inputs in the mathematical formula--e.g. excessive stimuli might produce cell damage instead of cell optimization.

Tovar's thesis refers to human bone and it's long term adaptation to external stress. There is an actual "sensing" at the cellular level of where and how to remodel for long term functional adaptation of the bone structure in response to external stimuli. The "rules" control the net mass formation in order to maintain normal equilibrium. Error signaling refers to signals indicating things are out of balance.

There are four Tovar rules that control the process. Unnecessary to explain how the rules work except to note that the rules as they operate control such things in formation as positioning, density, proportion, memory as to prior states regarding average strain energy, and memory as to future states based on actual and previous states. Tovar names the four rules:

two-positional control
proportional control
integral control
derivative control

Tovar concludes that "overall global behavior can be computed by local rules imposed on cells that only know local conditions, which depend on the present states of the cell and its neighbors." "...by this, a topology of bone remodeling is created." Tovar ends this: "This has proved to be a promising new tool for future study of bone remodeling."

The horse perspective on all this, next post.

Training:
Sat. 2/14 Valentine's Day starts off at 20 degrees but by training time the ground had barely thawed to deep mud in the paddock track. Horses were driven riderless for about 8 minutes off and on in spurts for a conditioning workout. We've survived the week with every other day soft workouts to maintain condition into the coming good weather, and, although we lost the week in terms of galloping, given the time of year and what appears to lie ahead, I'm quite happy.

Understanding Remodeling

How about this one: "Bone Remodeling as a Hybrid Cellular Automaton Optimization Process" from a 12/19/07 "Thesis" by Adres Tovar. Chemical and mechanical stimuli, hence "hybrid", begin the remodeling process at the cellular level in the form of "load signals". Tovar notes we're considering this for both the dense, solid cortical bone, and the porous, spongy trabecular bone (such as the condylar aspects of our horse cannons).

In humans these researchers concern themselves with the normal tearing down and rebuilding of bone noting "Basic Multicellular Units" within the bone structure that contain the necessary ingredients for the process starting with the mineral matrixes, the osteoblasts and clasts, osteocytes, proteins, and other various microscopic components and nutrients that respond to the load signals. The point is that the remodeling happens in multi-cell units instead of single cells.

Tovar goes on: "...there is strong evidence of the (rebuilding-remodeling) process, (but) little is known about the communication (at) the construction sites (among the various microscopic entities in the Basic Multicellular Units). This means that even in human research studies which concern themselves with various bone diseases and fracture repair instead of catastrophic breakdown on a race track, the research has a ways yet to go before fully understanding exactly how bone builds itself in response to stress.

Tovar goes on: "however, it has been theorized that some form of mechanical stimulus triggers (the process.)...new bone is deposited where the stimulus is high...

And so, we're talking of "tissue-level mechanisms of bone adaptation looking at them in phenomenological and optimization approaches in order to identify the communication systems among the microscopic materials in the Basic Multicellular Units.

Take note, if you read my last previous post--and it does hurt so bad to be right and correct--Tovar then proceeds to propose a mathematical formula wherein all this can be identified and understood: "(Our) aims have two requirements. The first is the formulation of a mathematically based mechanical stimulus from an optimization problem. The second is the implementation of the mechanical stimulus into appropriate control rules."

But, as we consider even more deeply, it's hardly surprising that mathematics comes into this since bone is partly made up of solid mineral matrixes that would conform to physical laws of fracture resistance in inert, non-living material studied by mechanical engineers--refer again to the Minnesota bridge collapse.

Tovar continues: "Many theoretical models for bone remodeling have been proposed..." And so, with a little help the blog will propose a new theoretical model for horses as this continues.

Training:
Fri. 2/13. Nob managed to draw blood while shoeing Art's right rear. The knife cut was a calculated gamble that failed instead of a careless swipe into the tissue. Art's hind is wrapped in cotton and vet wrap. Minor. Will apply the shoe and commence with training today, but Art was off Friday, and we declined to take Rod on a short trot during sleety weather with a strong north wind blowing in when I got to the farm. Too much trouble for zero gain. This was the week we were to have commenced accelerations under tack. Never happened due to weather. The racing season disappears quickly and we're backed up about 10 days due to the weather this week. But, clearing ahead, and we move our hoped for racing schedule from late March to mid April. The way I work mid May is more realistic, but I'm trying to push.

Fracture Resistance = X

Could consistent employment of a mathematical model breeze to breeze/race to race provide some educated guess work as to the condition of the cannon bones at any particular point in time? Post race, instead of standing before our horse and its warmly radiating cannons pondering in perplexity the question of "what next", might we instead refer to our notes and tablets, precisely analyze the recent history, and then calculate the probabilities concerning soundness or injury in future endeavors?

Unknown, whether we can do this of course, but I'm thinking were we to develop a consistent analysis over time we'd be far ahead of the "guess work by feel and experience" that most of us engage in day to day. Needless to say, if you want to look at my 1/23/09 post on trainer stats, the guess work being engaged in quite frequently goes awry.

So, possibly (we'll see) the end point of this discussion will be some sort of mathematical model, but first it's back to the beginning of the physiology to determine, if we develop a math model, what needs to be in the formula.

The posts on this blog over the last summer started this discussion and developed a theory of what we have to do to actually engage the cannon bone remodeling process. The conclusion was that race appropriate remodeling needs minimally breezes of 4f in :12.5s. Go shorter or slower, so the theory went, would fail to engage remodeling.

But, let's review and clarify for just a moment. The new reader might be thinking whether remodeling might be engaged by a series of 3f breezes in sub :12s. If you read those summer posts closely you will see that the speed and distance figures were arrived at by calculating the number of hoof strikes necessary to engage remodeling in any particular breeze. The speculation was that remodeling possibly is engaged as early as 2.5f if the horse is going fast enough, i.e. creating enough concussion with it's hoof strike. on this sort of analysis:

--Starting from hoof strike #1 how many strikes are necessary to sufficiently shake, pound, squeeze the bone materials for a remodeling reaction. The reaction begins immediately but we're looking for a race appropriate reaction and speculating this begins about 2.5f down the track.--

By 3f it was thought that in fact appropriate remodeling was probably happening BUT the 4f mark was used due to uncertainty. I.e. If we think that remodeling begins possibly at 2.5-3f, if we go 4f then we can be sure. Thus, we'd hope that remodeling takes place in 3f breezes, but to be safe we go 4f. Moreover, note that if remodeling begins only after 2.5f and we stop at 3f, we've engaged the process, but barely, and so we choose the safer 4f as the standard.

But, this should be further clarified by separating the concepts of "engaging the remodeling process" and "achieving fracture resistance". While 4f in :12.5 might get us remodeling nothing has been written to date that e.g. ten of such 4f breezes will get us to the state of fracture resistance. That is what we have to look at--how many and how to space them.

Training:
Thurs. 2/12: The Cody hitch has been installed in the truck. As soon as we can drag the trailer out of the mud we're off to Eureka Downs. Hopefully next week. After unbelievably good weather this year to 2/9/09 this week has been wet. The paddock track was usable for a tough riderless workout in deep mud. We went 25 minutes total in 2f spurts followed by short rests (to reduce pressure on check ligaments in the mud) 10 min. + 10 min. with a full 5 min. of rest in between. The horses were blowing when done. Decent considering conditions.

Shoeing

Today's shoeing victim is Art. Good instead of great job. Take a look and see where Nob might have improved.
The old shoe. The shoe's heel branches were cut off as the size 6 level grip had to be cut down with bolt cutters for the size 5.5 this horse wears.
Initial trimming. The red spot at the toe is dried blood. Notice bruising on the left sole at the quarters. This is what galloping on hard ground gets you. Nob said in mid January Art stopped galloping strongly. Now we know why.
The trimmed left hind. Overtrimmed at the toe so we have better balance as shoeing cycle proceeds but the hoof is less upright than the picture shows.
Continued below.

More Shoeing

Forgot this one--hoof rightafter shoe removed. Art grows a lot of wall. Notice the slight imbalance just to the right of the center of the toe which is the outside instead of inside of the hoof.

Almost done trimming. The final trim was blurry and is omitted. Nob working with a dull knife today. This horse has slightly contracted heels in that the hoof could be wider at the widest point of the frog.
The pocket anvil. This great shoe shaping tool will become more popular.
The shaped shoe before the heel branches are cut off (sized). Excessive roundness (for a hind) is an optical illusion of the photo.
The applied shoe with an attempt to spread the heels slightly.

Perfect job would have extended the branches of the heels of the shoe a flash more. The area to the immediate right of the toe center probably created while shoeing in sub freezing in December should have been corrected here. Need better balance at that spot next time.

Holy Cow

On a day I'm fathoming or trying to, the amount of depravity of two Luzerne Co.Pa. judges jailing juveniles for cash kickbacks, hundreds of them apparently. Did this really happen? There has to be more to this one. Then, ransom kidnappings hit Phoenix, a tax cheat runs the stimulus package and Treasury, Pelosi, Reid the Congress and Obama the country. Altogether now, with the ghost of Harry Caray, Holy Frigging Cow.

Meanwhile...launching right back into fracture resistance, the 2/7 post reviewed upper limits of safe breeze/race frequency and how to look at this--discussed in detail in the Sept. '08 post for anyone interested.

But, now... next question--moving from looking at the MOST that can be safely done to the LEAST that must be done to maintain race appropriate fracture resistance over time.

What info do we need, and how to approach the question? Fingers tapping on desk....

I'm thinking--as an example--of "Into Mischief" that nice Mandella trained colt in his Santa Anita KY Derby prep race last year where, after the usual Mandella powder puff breezes the horse was pressed to the limit down the straightaway and broke something. Just racing? Or, would it help us at all pre-race to have some informed idea that the horse can survive what it is we'll be asking it to do?
We're back to basic physiology, of course, Wolf's law of remodelling in response to exercise per the calf cannons that make another cameo, at left. We'd like to be precise, of course. Exactly at what point does the remodeled bone become fracture resistant in terms of racing?

May we designate that quality of fracture resistance we're looking for with an algebraic formula using x, y, z etc. as variables in the equation:

Race Appropriate Fracture Resistance = X + Y + Z where

X= total number of bone cells.
Y=thickness of bone cells.
Z =density of bone cells
etc.

Next post will (hopefully) identify the whole equation.

Training:
Wed. 2/11 Off. The precipitation reprieve might be ending, but, good weather ahead, and first Eureka trip being planned.

First Farm Videos

The first attempt at video appears below. Riderless work for 2/10/09 after two days off. First two videos show the warm up. The last video shows last 1/2 of riderless mile in :15s. They slow down at the end.

Sun. Misc.

On a slow Sunday I'll return to bone physiology tomorrow. Just got through reading Bill Pressey's new websites! Good stuff! Here they are:

http://www.horsetrainingscience.blogspot.com/

http://www.thoroedge.com/contact_us

Training:
Sat. 2/7: On a day so warm some fellow was towing his boat with his F-150, our track in several spots turned to slippery mud as the ground fully thawed.
Rod: Two miles intermittent gallop which included Rod's first continuous mile gallop.
Art: Nob due to the mud declines to take Art on the normal course. Art does 3 x 1.5 up our speed hill (and back down) but fastest in about :16. 1.25 mile gallop volume.
With possible rain tomorrow both horses did riderless speed work of 3 x 2f full speed with Rod flashing impressive speed today. Limited volume so we can go Sunday if the rain holds off.

Questions And Some Answers

"Everybody wants to be a body builder, but nobody wants to lift no dam ass weights..."--Ronnie Coleman

In terms of understanding the place of physiology and fracture resistance, I'd like to take the reader back again to the point immediately post race where we have the horse back at the barn and we're injury checking those very warm cannon bones simultaneously mulling, what next?

Anybody that's been there understands the perplexity, regardless of the particular performance at that moment in time. In making our subsequent decisions we have a choice of going on feel, instinct and experience, or we can add to that an understanding and application of the science. Chaos theory postulates cause and effect, and thus, for our little bone cells there are decisions to be made, provided we understand.

This blog July to Octobor '08 covered much of the physiology, came to some significant conclusions in the month of September, but some questions were left dangling.

First, I'd like to tighten up the review started last post for understanding as this goes forward.

First we have some assumptions to consider:
1. Dirt track.
2. We're dealing with conditioned bone, i.e. we're declining to pull a Square Eddie, race the horse and then wait 16 days to do a :58 and change.
3. The term "conditioned bone" postulates a mineral matrix and collagen tightly packed with bone glue proteins all buttressed tightly against each other to withstand impact.
4. This conditioned bone material will hold up to any single hit or stride but in the course of 240 hits or strides there will be some damage.
5. We believe the damage will involve partial or whole destruction of the matrix of single bone cells instead of groups.
6. And the destruction will be diffuse (scattered) throughout the cannon bone.
7. In" hard body" training bone traumatized repeatedly will transform itself by remodelling--Wolf's law.

and so:

QUESTION I: How much bone cell damage in a single one mile speed event?

We estimate 1% destruction for every breeze at :12 speed.
We estimate less than 1% destruction at slower than :12 speed

QUESTION II: What percent of the 1% damaged bone cells are completely (as opposed to partially) damaged: 50%--i.e. in the "hard bodied" trained horse .5% of cells/breeze are 100% damaged and .5% have less than 100% damage to their matrixes. Obviously, the partially damaged cell will repair faster than the 100% destroyed cell!

QUESTION III: How long to repair a single partially or wholly damaged bone cell:

30 days

QUESTION IV: How much bone cell damage can we tolerate in a 30 day period? What is acceptable to us?

My answer: 7-8% damage per month is acceptable.

Thus, through early Oct. '08 the blog had calculated the max. upper limits of breezing/racing per month. Preston Burch would breeze a horse in :12s ten times/month and end up with 14% (or less) bone damage on the 30th day. I'd posted that this is unacceptable to me, and that we can reduce the 14% damage figure by a) backing off on number of speed days, and b) backing off on speed to e.g. :12.5s instead of :12s, per the training of TC winner Assault.

That's were I was. Onward, next post.

Training;
Fri. 2/6: After last night's 4 miles of w/o including speed the horses were tired, but gamely each galloped 1.8 miles. Rod did his first "real" galloping and got his first lead change. Art went steady with 50 yards of trot between the .9 +.9 miles at about :19 speed.

Physiology: Brief Review

The Devil, who has paid a visit to the good citizens of Moscow, explains in "The Master And Margarita" that for his eternal punishment Pontius Pilate sits in outer space on a chair considering what the heck he was thinking when he sentenced to death
Jesus Christ. Every eon or so someone walks by Pontius and the chair and they have a brief discussion as to the events. Could have been worse punishment, possibly. We learn in the novel, there were mitigating circumstances.

Blogger eternal punishment, I'm thinking, will be spent re-reading your own blog as I've just done rereading posts 7/5/08 to 9/30/08 on cannon bone physiology during a single breeze.

A new reader that's interested might take a look. Good stuff to know and understand, lest we all become breeders.

The following refreshes the memory a bit. Please note that where I'd left it on 9/30 appears at the very end of this below, and is the point at which I'll continue next post.

the fracture process
-how does the mineral matrix react to force.
-load signals and load signaling, expansion, girding at point of max force.
-response to force aided by the flow of fluids in the bone center.
-bone proteins being squeezed together as springs in a mattress.
-critical strain
-shear mode
-tear mode
-ductility
-stress intensity factor
-energy release mode
--squeezing or pressing of material during weight bearing phase of the stride.
--the concept of rearrangement of material (instead of micro fracture).

speed of mineralization and re mineralization--slow instead of fast but likened to
mixing concrete at molecular level.
-2 months for a single understress collagen fibril to initially mineralize.
--30 days for a single damaged cell to repair.

how much damage in a single breeze in :12s
--240 strides or hits in a mile race.
--4% of bone cells at any point in time undergoing repair +
--1% bone cell destruction per breeze that must be repaired.
--cumulative damage in subsequent breezes = 1% +1% +1% etc.
-- the damage adds up.
--but repair of the 1% begins immediately.
--significance of exact state of repair at given point in time.

How to calculate when to do the next breeze
--how soon can we go again?
--what % of bone cell damage do we have at a given point in time?
--how soon must we go to continue bone remodelling?
--ideal breeze/race spacing for injury prevention.

Training:
Wed. 2/4: Cold. Riderless work--3 miles for Rod, 2 for Art who tweaked a leg and was immediately removed. Nothing big as it turns out. Nice snappy workout with several short 2f bursts of 90% speed. Rod is trying to drop out again here and there. Lazy?
Thurs: 2/5: Complete transformation in Rod tonight as this horse turns a planned 2 mile slow riderless work into a romp. Rod this time is pressing them all the way. What a difference in his attitude since yesterday. They end up with 3 miles riderless volume with short rests and at least 4f continuous full speed. Very hard work. Horses then each tacked a mile. Art canter. Rod: trot with a few hops.

Remodelling

Body builder Ronnie Coleman serves to provide an intro to the process of tissue remodelling in response to physiological stress. Take a look at the frame and consider the potential. And what happens and fails to happen when your trainer does or declines to take your horse to the gym.

I bought Coleman's book "Hardcore" thinking I might learn something about training from an 8 time Mr. Olympia. That's a younger Coleman on the cover.

and, yes, that's Coleman at the squat rack as the only man ever to survive a 1000 lbs. squat. A video shows him doing two squats, and the metal bar is bent just as the photo shows.

Whatever can be said about the sissy, prissy sport of bodybuilding can we agree that the muscular development of humans the likes of Ronnie Coleman, who matured from a normal looking albeit stocky fellow who took up weight lifting in his early 20s to the freakish behemoth pictured above left when he finally lost the Mr. Olympia title to Jay Cutler in 2006 at age 42, provides a labratory in real life of what happens in response to exercise over time. Body builders carry or attempt to carry remodelling to the limit, but (possibly) we need to understand exactly what goes on here before continuing, next post.

Training:

Tues. 2/3: With great training weather blowing in, we're off on a very cold day.

Questions

Txs. for comments last post. Bill Pressey notes injury stats from Australia, and Duncan Hockley from Aussie I'd be interested to know more about that Ivers trained horse with the 30 starts. Did you put him through the whole program, or just modified? Like Bill, I'm looking for the book! I've noted before, when and if I ever get to performance, big section coming on Tommy John Smith, and also Aussie Standardbred Trainer Fred Kersley who has some interesting insights on performance. Note Bill's website--comment last post--I'll check it out this week!

This post I'll jump right into the physiology. Will be thinking as I go and pulling these questions out of the hat. Note, for race appropriate fracture resistance (on a dirt surface), if we do the minimums in speed--12.5 and distance--4f, how often do we have to go before we get there and then stay there?

1. What is fracture resistance physiologically. What are the components?

2. What happens precisely during bone remodelling?

3. How much bone remodelling do we get from one workout? Two? Three? and so on?

4. How long post breeze till remodelling begins to reverse, or does reversal even occur?

5. Does spacing affect the rate of remodelling or the maintenance?

6. Can we affect the rate and quality of remodelling by varying speed and distances?

7. Is there a point were we do more harm than good in terms of speed, distance and frequency?

8. What must we do when we get there?

That's salvo #1. Will avoid belaboring, but thinking as long as we have the topic, would be nice to get solid answers, once and for all!.

Training: Sun. 2/1 Off. Mon. 2/2: During the 1/2 mile riderless warm up they took off. I went with it and we ended up with a snappy mile with 1 +2f of it all out. First speed work in 5 days. That's all for Rod as he sprung a newly nailed on shoe. Nob had left the branch over a heel hoping to extend the heel. Failed to work this time. Art galloped 1 + 1 with only a short trot between in :22s. Declining to extend himself on hard ground. Nob weights in at 160 lbs. today. Voila!!!

Is there anything more hillarious than listening to a bunch of farriers complaining about cold weather? Anyone that's ever driven a horse shoe nail will appreciate what follows. And, if previously you thought global warming is caused by carbon dioxide, think again. There's enough hot air coming off of this thread to warm the planet:

http://horseshoes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9381

p.s. for the uninitiated, it is just real hard to drive a nail at 20 degrees, much less 0 or below.