Post Breeze/Race Remodeling VII: Calculating Timing

The man again. Read on to see why this post belongs to Tom Ivers.

Lots of "ifs". If the event temporarily compacts the lattice slightly and increases bone glue pressure, if there is a resulting slight increase in strength, and if there is a bounce back effect in 3-5 days as I have supposed--- suspect that this is the process of "hard body" training as you may see it described on You Tube and also what allowed the old timey trainers to get away with their frequent, lengthy breeze work. With repeated poundings bone will compact and increase in density and strength up to a certain maximum point permitting the karate chop that will break the bricks. Such is aided and abetted over time by construction of new and presumably stronger bone by the osteo clast/blast process. All theory--but something has got to be going on in there even if there are some errors in exact conceptualization.

For our horses then the question becomes how soon we need to go again after the event to preserve this process. BUT, remember that there are really two questions to this proposed exercise protocol:

1. How soon can we go (after the speed event) where the limiting factor is accumulated (and diffuse) bone cell damage as laid out here in Aug/Sept. 2008 and concluded here:

(Edit--URL failing to work--these posts appear at 9/24 and 9/25/08)
http://ratherrapid.blogspot.com/2008/09/acceptable-bonecell-damage.html

To prevent excessive bone cell damage over a number of breezes/races we correctly calculate frequency, distance and speed in terms of amount bone cell damage acceptable subjectively. I posted that the old timers may have had a higher tolerance for accumulated damage than do I.

2. How soon must we go(to achieve and maintain race appropriate fracture resistance) is an altogether different question and the question of the moment which perhaps has already been answered by the surmise that within 3-5 days the rebounding effect of the lattice will have completed and thereafter you have the bone in substantially the same condition as pre-event.

Let's add one other hypothesis to this 3-5 day period. Possibly at the end of the 5 days with the completion of rebounding the "threads" of the lattice will remain for a while in such position that a subsequent event more easily pounds them back to where they were in the period of compaction, than e.g. if the next event is a longer period down the road. An example:

If the horse breezes on the 6th or 7th day perhaps the threads(of the lattice cell) recompact by more easily sliding back into their little conjunctive-connective spots, whereas if the horse next breezes in 2 weeks post event the conjunctive areas will have recalcified and the sliding back to original position by these threads would be impossible.

So, I'm thinking, if the horse breezes maybe within 8 days of the event there might still be some "saving" effect of the original event compacting!

This is probably enough to allow logical decision making with regard to the timing of the next speed event.

Consider the next speed event as within 3,4,5,6,7, 8 days. Based on the theory, the sooner within this period the next event occurs the greater the cumulative compactive effect. But, if we do have an 8 day window where we still get a benefit, then we may calculate the exact timing based on our concern over the limiting factor of "bone cell damage" caused by the event. If we have a greater fear of damage we might wait the whole 8 days. If our concern is less or non-existent--e.g. if the horse never ran a jump and had an easy race--we may decide to do something on day 3!

I also support there is an "optimal" time, again considering possible event damage. It seems very obvious to me that the optimal is probably 4 days. If we wait longer than 5 days we get less and less improvement until we pass the 8th day and get none at all except bone rebuilding.

So, perhaps Tom Ivers got it right. Every 4 days is the ideal speed spacing, limited by what we perceive to be damage from the prior events. Certainly this analysis supports what Ivers intuitively believed.

Training:
Thurs. 4/24 Off after an inch of rain today. The two major engineering problems for the trailer are solved this week. Trailer is back in the paddock and we're trailer training.
Fri. 4/25: 30-40 mph wind gusts have dried things out but the horses are jumping out of their skins. Nob refuses to get on. Art goes riderless at speed: 5 x 2f in the mud. Rod has a nickel size wound in his sole completely exposing the laminae. A two-three day deal in dry weather. It is anything but that around here.