Blog Outline

After the TC races, which have been instructive, the blog dives back and hopefully figures out what's necessary to avoid injuries to our horses such as Dunkirk. An outline of this since the Blog started in late 2006:

1. Why should we avoid conventional training, and why might we prefer the old time methods of Preston Burch et. al. instead. Possibly the old timers were playing their own roulette by doing too much.

2. But, since conventional training creates a high percentage of injuries, we need to find a better method!

3. What can we do, and what are the minimums and maximums in terms of injury prevention.

4. The "max" question was dealt with July-Sept. 2008, concluding that possibly 7 or 8 speed events per month is the safe max, and more in Preston Burch style starts to get dicey.

5. Minimum work to achieve appropriate bone remodeling/fracture resistance (FR) is the present subject, and deals with the variables:

speed: at least :12.5/f
distance: at least 4f
frequency: to be determined.

Frequency of speed events is possibly our most imporant subject. One trainer does 4 per month, the other 1. Who is correct?

We look at available evidence:

1. Trainer and injury statistics, here: (see Post of 1/23/09).

2. What occurs at:

the molecular/atomic level (where the blog is right now)

within the larger structures within the bone tissues

at the macro level involving the whole leg and stride.

Evidence to date points to a minimum frequency for FR at 7 days or less.

Training:
Sun. 6/15 normal off day + another inch of rain.
Tues: about to go out there. It's raining again. All we can do is trot. Thinking each horse will do about 2.5 miles on very soft ground.