Loss Of A Trusted Friend: Amart 2005-2010

"I might entreat the fleeting minute,
Oh tarry yet, though art so fair..."
--Goethe

Time line: 2/27/10

11:30 a.m. horses fed, all is well, I leave for my office.
12:30 p.m. As I'm unlocking my office door, call from my neighbor Beth: "Art is here in our paddock". Another Amart escape. Last one was 7 months ago. How did he get over the impenetrable fence?

1:00 p.m. I arrive at Beth's. Instead of Art's usual pacing their paddock after their mares, Art just stands next to the fence as I arrive, producing a hmm.. from me, and then he paws about shoulder high at their wooden plank fence. Art is other than a pawer, but, colt-mare stuff, I am thinking of the pawing.

I walked Art back to the farm. The usual ear splitting neighing at the mares from him. He's a little skinned up. Nothing serious. lost a front shoe and lanced a rear heel bulb. Also a small wound under his chin that proves prophetic.

Decision then made to get in today's exercise now instead of returning at 5 p.m. Art is now pawing the ground in response to his buddies. More colt-mare behavior I'm thinking, but then Art is lack luster in the riderless running and drops out and runs into the barn. I let him go, thinking possibly Art had enough exercise already.

2:00 p.m. Finish the exercise and proceed to worm my boys. I go into the barn to worm Art and immediately see that Art needs banamine instead of wormer. Art has pawed up one corner of the barn in the manner of a horse with colic. I understand now the prior pawing.

We probably had a couple of colics a year, and I have a routine that has always worked. I put this into action with Art. Listen for gut sounds. None on either side. Absolutely none. Concerning. Push around with my hands on his stomach hoping to affect a possible impaction. I am thinking that Art probably left to chase mares immediately after graining this morning and failed to drink any water. I'd noticed the horses had drunk no water after last night's graining. Thus, possible two feedings without water ingestion.

Banamine paste was administered and Art was run around the paddock till he dumped. Also, a small second dump. This is good. Had running failed to produce the dump Art would be put in the trailer with the hope that nerves would get a dump, but unnecessary.

Since Art was declining any rolling or even going down I left to check the fence for tracks in the snow so I could make fence repairs. A 3 mile walk in 5 inches of snow where Art generally escapes produced zero horse tracks. Very puzzling.

3:00 p.m. I'm back at the barn hoping to see Art ok. But, he's still colicing, still without gut sounds, and now showing a level of more rapid breathing and distress. My next thing is to take the medicine tube and make him drink some water. First thing that comes out of his mouth is the banamine. He'd failed to swallow. Unless drinking water quickly worked I'd need the vet as I was out of banamine. Art drank some water on his own. I left again in search of tracks along the fence.

3:30 p.m. I get back. Without any change at all. I call the vet. She's on the way.

4:45 p.m. Vet arrives. the young lady from Dr. Jackson's office does a decent job with the usual routine. She's good with the stomach tube, BUT the banamine shot produces absolutely zero relief of pain. My level of concern is now growing.

5:30 p.m. at my request vet calls Dr. Jackson who is off today. Dr. Jackson offers to come pick up the horse since I'm unable to get my trailer out of the snow. He's on the way. That's the kind of vet he is and has been for 15 years. I'll recall the morning my mare had trouble foaling at 5:00 a.m. From 20 miles away Dr. Jackson was there at 5:25 a.m. Saved both mother and foal

I lead Art out to the pasture to be with the other two horses, and, a touching scene even without knowing what was to come.

Seemingly sensing their buddy's distress, with Art between them, one gently kept nudging Art's face and the other nudged the top of Art's neck. With what was to come, a memorable scene.

Then I saw it. Right in front of my house. A section of fence was down. The scene of Art's fatal accident. Everything came together now and Art's horrible moment clicked in--lost front shoe. Lacerated rear heel bulb, wound under his chin. Skinned up rear legs. Art somehow got himself caught in this fence, front leg and rear. Likely he slipped in the mud went down, cut his cheek and, with two feet caught, probably had to struggle severely to extricate himself. Twisted instestine" impinges on my thoughts.

6:00 p.m. produces more puzzlement. Dr. Jackson has pulled up to the barn, and, me traipsing through mud, water and snow to get the horse, Doc is following me in his rubber boots. It's near dark. Maybe Doc just wants to watch me or look at the ground conditions, but as I keep walking he keeps following, and this exchange:

Me: "Doc, you coming along?"
Doc: "When I drove in I thought I saw a horse laying down in the field".

Another moment of "hmm..", but there's no horses to be seen.

"Where".
Doc: "over below that hill".

With enough light to barely see we came over the ridge, and when we got there, Art was down, and he was dead. The other two were standing over him with fairly obvious horse type concern and puzzlement. They were both looking down at their fallen comrade.

Dr. Jackson explained it to me. The tissue of a twisted instestine fairly quickly dies, and then it ruptures sending toxins flooding into the system. This produces immediate killing shock. The horse was probably felled by pain and almost immediately became unconscious. Of my many horses this one, certainly, deserved to die in peace. Art lay there stiffly in the snow as a beloved animal in a majestic but last pose. RIP ART!

Unknown if or when I'll continue. I've lost my runner, and a friend. Right now I am just very sad for this kind horse.

Misc.

My pasture. Very cold weather and unusual number of distractions have kept me away. Return shortly. The photo is actually a cloud bank taken from the top of Mt. Washington, wherever that is. But, the pastures look sort of like this.

Bourbon Bay!!!

This one takes the cake. Amart I bought at Faisig Tipton 2006 for $2600, and Rodney same sale 2007 for $3500.00, and now, Bourbon Bay, for $1700 2007 Keenland Fall Yearling sale, winning yesterday's San Luis Obispo. Is this an all time sales graduate record for a winner of a major stake in terms of purchase price? Got to be close to the record, eh? Rhetorical--how does a horse looking as good as above pass for $1700.00? Rhetorical question.

Training:
Slogging through distractions at the moment, I'll catch this up later.

Speed Work And Nano Structures II

On with the drama! Prior posts noted complexity of "mineralization" as a process poorly understood. They've identified production of mineral salts in bone as probably a chemical process (as opposed to physical, electrical, etc.). They have pegged larger substances, found these originate from smaller, then smaller till they've isolated the smallest ones, but, that's where it stops for they are unsure of where the smallest nano chemical componets of the minerals originate.

Thus for purpose here, we have to leave the "composition " of the mineral salts and how exercise might affect this in terms of volume as an "unknown" since the research is unable to conclude precisely even the origin of these mineral salts.

Having set that background, I'll back track a bit by reminding that I'd initially concluded that the form and function of the bone larger structures prevent excessive calcification. For the leg to swing and move properly there are upper limits to the volume of calcification, and hence the cannons of my much exercised 15 year old are roughly the same circumference (though a bit stouter to the feel) than the cannons of my relatively less exercised youngsters.

And, the faithful reader will recall that the aforesaid brilliant conclusion was (later) supported by some U. of Utah Vet School project concluding: "regardless of strain (applied to the material in the research lab), the osteocytes (calcium producing cells), have a markedly heterogeneous structural and material organization".--Translate: regardless of exercise volume or intensity we're without any change in amount of osteocytes or their distribution. "Strain" failed to increase the number or pattern!

And, I'm again running out of time. I meant to comment on Damascus, and hope to do so tomorrow.

Training:
MLB Spring training is here but our god-awful KC weather continues. If, one morning, I walk into our running paddock and its dry, there might be a cardiac event.
Tues. 2/16: ground frozen solid. Each walked for 5 min under tack tip toeing on frozen egg carton.
Wed. 2/17: mostly thawed. after 3 days off--8 min light riderless + 6 times around walking under tack.
Thurs. 2/18: 40 degrees today. Got in a decent for the conditions (medium mud) riderless workout--spurts of 2f each for about 8 min. Tack work--each horse trot-walked with difficulty due to ground conditions, 8 times around the paddock.

Margo The Cat

Mike Muhlbauer (my cousin, the vet): How old is your cat?
RR: 21.
Mike: Hmmm...
RR: How old do they get?
Mike: 21.

For posterity, thus, time for a place of honor on the blog for Margo, born spring of '90. She is lone survivor of about 6 others including all their one year stay at KY Horse Center in Lexington in 1998. How to walk a cat? Video demonstration above. Hopefully this helps the little creature in her digestive processes, arthiritis, etc. She's taken daily into the pasture and she walks herself back to the house. Notice she goes straight in and straight back to her bed. Still spry though! If weather prevents horse exercise, we practice our training skills walking the cat. On comment, last post. Txs very much. I once owned a grandson of Damascus bought from owners of Summer Bird at Arkansas Breeder's Sale 1988. Had to turn on comment moderation. My first experience with it, and will reply later as I'm just now in a hurry.

More on the guest of honor. Below 4 or 5 years back.
And, the former gang. Margo at top.

Speed Work And Nano Structures

Caracortado wins Saturday's Robert B. Lewis and more fodder for our amusement, considering that the sire Cat Dreams stands for $1500 in Brookville, Indiana, wherever that is (congrats to those folks!), and more importantly to this blog Caracortado strode 40 times 3/16th pole to wire thus his lead front cannon striking the ground surface roughly 26 times/furlong which is about 213 hits/mile. Consider!

Indulge me for a moment and visualize seizing with your hand our old friend the Type I Bone Collagen fibril, above right, by its tail on its left and slinging this cell against a solid surface 213 times. What might we expect in terms of the internal structures?

Review collagen cell content. The blue structures in the image above are intra-cellular mineral hydroxyapetite crystals referred to as HA platelets. These little near solid calcified bodies shape themselves into 6 sided hexagonal patterns. The white color in the image consists primarily water, but somewhere in there is the rest of the cell apparatus, nucleus, mitochondria, DNA, etc. These are mature, as opposed to newborn, fibrils since they are already mostly mineralized.

We sling this cell against a wall, the bottom one, perhaps, noting that our cell is braced against numerous brethren (and sisters) which dissipate the force of the hit. Nevertheless may we think, after 213 strikes against the wall that there would be some fairly dramatic effect in the interior of this cell. I am thinking that HA Platelets might be pushed in the opposite end from our force, and that they might be pushed closer together. I am further thinking that this process would leave behind additional water spacing for more HA platelets to grow post race.

In this "slinging a fibril against the wall" experiment, we need consider some other characteristics. Our horse is dealing with multiple fibril arrays or patterns. In addition to single fibrils bearing force with each strike these arrays do also. Below an image of multiple fibrils arrayed in a pattern.
Notice above the spacing between the fibrils. How might such space be affected by the hits?

Below are images from the Planck piece showing mineral growth outside the fibrils. The black are HA platelets, the white is the skin of the fibril. How might these patterns be affected by the hits?
And, we notice below (again, from Planck) that fibril arrays may align themselves in certain patterns. Planck stands for the proposition that the arrangement of these arrays matters in terms of strength and fracture resistance. May we consider that after multiple strikes the fibril arrays in our horse cannons might begin to assume the "ad hoc" position instead of prior randomness? Significance, next post.

Training:
Sun 2/14: Off day scheduled for Valentine's Day 2009, A cold bad weather day in KC.

Mineralization And Speed Work

So, putting it all together,I'm attempting visually to imagine, as the horse travels at speed, what occurs at the nano level in terms of mineralization, and also what might occur post work!
Last post raised the question again that magnified bone images appear to be100% mineralized, and so, how might equine speed work possibly improve mineralization?

May we recall that Hansma has already answered the question with his bone diagnostic instrument:

http://ratherrapid.blogspot.com/2010/02/mouse-buddies-pitching-in.html

where the mice femurs showed mineral changes after just 21 days of exercise!

So, the images last post show 100% mineral density but Hansma's bone indents with his instrument shows mineral changes in mouse femurs after but 21 days of exercise. What is in fact happening? Enter the Planck piece which, absent specific equine research, at least breaks things down enough that we might engage in some logical analysis.

Recall:

"Broedling et. al. 2007 showed that the strength and the toughness of HA crystals depends upon the size and arrangement pattern of the crystals."

I.e. there is more to mineralization in terms of strength and FR than merely the constituent materials. We must deal additionally with arrangement patterns. These may DIFFER (instead of being all the same), depending on various factors! Might we, e.g. imagine that a horse cannon slamming into the ground surface 240 times in a race would affect "arrangement". The Planck piece noted that "strength" or for us FR varies in materials based on several factors:

constituents
orientation
distribution
shape

What might be happening, next post.

Training:
Thurs. 2/11: Rod only, light riderless workout in deep mud. Art lost a shoe.
Fri. 2/12: Lazy Rod today. Both horses in deep mud go intermittently about 10 min. Definitely training some mudders.
Sat. 2/13: Deep mud but slightly better conditions. Lots of standing water with snow melting. A fairly rigorous 10 min. riderless with Rod showing a little more enthusiasm. 5 min tack work for both horses.

Some Images

Trabecular bone is soft spongy bone at the end of the shafts in contrast to the hard cortical bone making up most of the length. At left is a nice illustration by which we may imagine the function of this soft bone to spread and absorb force.

And below, a nice illustration showing blood vessels that we may think play important roles in delivery of materials for mineralization.

and, below particularly note the illustration at top right showing "collagen fiber orientation".
The above indicates that, though exceedingly less dense, the trabecular bone has the same basic osteonal organization of the cortical bone. And, we may note the organization of the individual collagen cells, and imagine, re Planck and Hansma their extra cellular mineral bumps and extrafibrillar mineral rings.

But, with the Planck article, recently discussed, and thus understanding the importance of mineralization in bone strength particularly in terms of "extrafibrillar" (outside the collagen fibril) mineral deposits and mineral rings, the question for our equines occurs as to how speed exercise affects the mineralization processes.

The image below seems instructive, to me:
Note the mineral denseness of the cell organization in the image. And, another below showing density even greater.
I'd suspect these are dead bone images, that live bone images might give a different looser sensation regards mineral density, and that the same images at magnified resolutions might indicate a much lesser compaction and thus the images above "might" create more an illusion of total mineral density, i.e. we'd see far more "spacing" at magnified resolutions.

Nevertheless, considering the effect of equine speed work on cellular mineralization, the question does occur to me that these images already show near maximum mineralization, and that thus an easy answer to the question would be that therefore exercise, regardless of intensity, would fail to add mineralization to the above images. Consider, next post.

Training:
2/8-2/10: Off due to frozen ground and near single digit temps. Begin again 2/11.

Weather

While the next bone post is strung together, a short "of interest only to me" post for posterity, and since weather continues to dominate our training this will sort of memorialize our problems.

The latest (above) omg moment bearing down on us Thurs., 2/4/10. With regard for the East Coast and their 2 feet of snow, around here snow forecasts are 100% of the time exaggerated. Saturday's radio reports of 6-8 inches for KC turned into less than 1/2 inch, though we enjoyed the battalions of snow plows driving about. Good to see they are ready!

This blog was conceived in late 2006 with the idea of detailing a racing operation. It's been anything but since I purchased Art and Rod in on-line bidding at 2006 and 2007 at Oct. Fasig Tipton. Our constant training companion ever since has been ridiculous weather, and, as the 2009 stats suddenly appear for KC, I'm relieved to notice my perception of constant rain was other than a personal illusion.

According to National Weather Service from KC International Airport 10 miles down the road from the farm, in 2009 it was dry 137 days, i.e. this area received at least some precip. on 228 out of 365 days. Of those 228 115 days (1/3 a year) exceeded .1 inch, and this was with Jan.,Feb., and May 2009 receiving hardly any rain at all. Both March and April in addition to constant rain had all time daily rain falls recorded, with huge daily rain falls on a couple of the other months.

Oh well. Explains in part why our running paddock has been wet since September, and so on. Unknown where we to go from here. Jan. and Feb. like last year have been dry but cold reminding of winters of old and keeping large snowfalls on the ground. Our aim is Lincoln State Fair in May. We'll see how it goes.

Training:
2/8-1/10: Off due to weather down to 10 degrees, but looks as if we're on the upswing with a nice Accuweather forecast for next 2 weeks.

Does Exercise Affect Mineralization?

Paul Hansma (left) in 6/09 used his bone diagnostic instrument to find that 21 days of consistent exercise measurably "strengthens" mouse bones. And thus, this blog may quit our ceaseless bellyaching about lack of research on the point. Exercise affects the structure of mouse bones, and we need determine the whats, whys and wherefores, never mind that a little research on some larger animals might be helpful.

Through much jiggling about, this blog previously concluded there are at least two major bone changes resulting from our horse galloping at speed (12.5 sec./f or faster over 4f or more):

1. increase in Hansma's bone glue. Others call them bone glue proteins. I more suspect they are gunk left over from bone metabolism. and 2. mineral lattice compaction at the nano level. Both these effects seem temporary and would need to be reinforced by subsequent speed work within 8 days with an ideal spacing of 4 days.

After Planck, it's obvious we also need consider mineralization, and whether exercise affects this crucial process. Planck indicates that at best 1/2 of our horse's cannons are water, and that even deep in the mineral lattice at the nano level we have a packing pattern of HA crystal-water-Ha crystal-water, and so on. For FR we need maximize mineralization!

Hansma with his mice claimed exercise affects strength, but leaves e.g. elastic modulus and hardness unaffected. Let's note this particular research but scratches the surface of measuring bone material qualities--the elastic properties--as determined in materials science. I'd doubt Hansma fails to know more than in the most general sense, the effect of exercise, and so we still need answer: how does exercise affect mineralization. Next post.

Training:
Fri. 2/5: Off
Sat. 2/6: Riderless paddock work 8 x 2.5f several of them full speed. Mud and snow ideal combo for running.
Sun. 2/7: Riderless paddock work 3f x 7 as fast as they could go. The heavier horse, Rod, struggles with this volume a bit, but we're encouraged he continued to compete. A bit of a bench mark were we are having recommenced training 2/2.

Mouse Buddies Pitching In

Published June 17, 2009 Hansma et. al.: Testing Mouse Femora
U.C. Santa Barbara

Hypothesis: short term running has ...benefit on the mechanical properties of the femur.

A previous model system shows elastic modulus, hardness, and IDI (indentation distance as shown by the bone diagnostic instrument) as the best "discriminators" of differences in mechanical properties (between one bone and another).

The Bone Diagnostic Instrument, imaged below at work, was developed in the Hansma Physics Lab to determine the mechanical properties of bone and as a predictor of fracture risk.

The instrument indents into the bone with various forces directed by the researcher. The "indentation distance" is measured. Lesser distance at a given force indicates stronger bone. Note varying distances in the image below.
Indentation distance with this instrument provides a way to measure the bone's ability to resist additional deformation. With this instrument Hansma makes strength calculations for live bone, whereas Planck was limited to models.

And so, Hansma exercises 5 young mice on a treadmill for 30 min./day for but 21 days. 5 sedentary youngsters provide a control group. "The mice were the same sex and strain (male)". 10 older mice exercised for 4 months since this is an osteoporosis study. The results between old and young mice were roughly the same in terms of differences in bone strength between exercised and sedentary.

A maximum applied loading force was calibrated on the instrument. 9 lesser loads were also applied for comparison.

Results: "A relatively brief 21-day period of running induced significant changes in IDI in the femora of young mice...This shows that short term exercise in young developing bone may reduce the risk of fracture...exercise in developing bone may lead to fracture resistance."

And so, there you have it. Actual research on live bone indicating that exercise produces a positive effect on bone mineralization.

Some questions about this research which is done primarily to promote practical applications for Bone Indentation Instrument in terms of osteoporosis, i.e. these physicists have less interest in bone mineralization and more interest in selling their instrument.

Note above that Hansma indicates he's looking at three (of many) bone strenght qualities:

elastic modulus
strength
IDI (indentation distance from his instrument that has been previously correlated to
bone strength qualities.

Now, Hansma indicates: "Neither the elastic modulus nor the hardness showed significant difference with exercise (compared to sedentary)."

Thus, though there's differences in indentation distance between exercised and sedentary, there's zero difference in elastic modulus and hardness.

Note, e.g. that hardness is just one of numerous bone qualities, and if you already have maximum hardness in a sedentary person, exercise would fail to improve. I think that's what they are meaning, though it is unclear as Hansma avoids stating how he reached the conclusion. Nevertheless, I think this merely speaks to my dinosaur reference, that the basic nature of bone does not change because you are exercising it, except in some limited respects that are referred to on this blog.

Ramifications of Hansma, next post.
The article at: http://hansmalab.physics.ucsb.edu/pdf/BoneDiagnostic3.pdf

Training:
Tues. 2/2: Pasture Romp and 5 min tack walk.
Wed. 2/3: Pasture Romp and 5 min. tack walk.
Thurs. 2/4: Quality pasture romp in ideal conditions were they raced each other in short spurts, followed by an intermittent mile of riderless work in the running paddock finally available after almost 60 days. 20-30 yards of speed here and there. 10 min of trot-walk under tack.

What Causes Mineralization?

First Clown: "How can that be, unless..."

Second Clown: "Why, tis found so."
Hamlet

What happens in the equine cannon as our horse motors down the track? The blog previously "found" there are temporary increases in bone glue proteins and compaction of the mineral lattice and that both "effects" serve to create denser, stronger bone. And, may I add, these findings were other than pulling rabbits out of the hat. These temporary effects may be increased by timely subsequent speed work done within 8 days of the initial speed work with an ideal spacing of every 4 days.

Then there was this fellow
where it was speculated, possibly incorrectly, that mineralization of bone, being how it has developed over eons, would be little changed because we have suddenly decided to race horses. I was thinking of bone crystalization as a longer term process than a couple of weeks, and thus "timing" of speed work would fail to affect the size, shape, composition or density of the crystal. That was before being side tracked by Planck.


After the Planck article we reconsider our old friend the collagen molecule:
the worm like structure above consisting of water(white), Type 1 bone collagen, and HA mineral crystals (blue). Where is the collagen? Above the HA crystals have already subsumed most of it. These are aged fibrils instead of newborns. What was collagen is now the blue HA crystals.

Which is stronger D or E? After Planck we know E with higher mineral density than D.

And, we now know this interior mineralization grows simultaneously with exterior mineral coatings in similar spacing patterns. And so, if mineralization is found to be good, what causes it? Diet, exercise, genetics, cell electro chemistry, or possibly merely the horse racing gods?

To answer, a little chemistry is necessary.

calcium + phosphorus = hydroxyapetite crystals, i.e. HA crystals (the blue above)

HA crystals formation is initially promoted by osteoblasts, or are they? The research (seems to) state the exact process of crystal formation is "poorly understood", "unknown" "don't know" and other variations of the same thought, observations (similar to those in this blog) where such uncertainty hardly prevents each researcher from forwarding an opinion.

For normal calcification, best I can decipher, triggers start the process which seem to be mostly chemical, as opposed to electrical, or genetic, or exercise related, primarily involving a protein "alkaline phosphotase" (phosphorus), which in turn is stimulated by even smaller proteins whose names we'll avoid. It's what causes the unnamed (here) smaller proteins that is poorly understood with some claiming they result from genetic encoding, others from correct diet and so on. In the famous words of Professor Brian Fagan, "we don't really know."

Let's leave it like this: in bone, inhibitors and catalysts balance and control the chemical processes of mineralization. Put two chemicals together, you get a balanced reaction that results in crystals of a given size and spacial distribution in correct ratios.

Then there's the question whether these chemical reactions are local or systemic, i.e. must calcium and phosphorus be present in correct ratios in the horse's entire body, or just locally at the site of the mineralization. The latest seems to be that the required triggers need be "local."

But, there's so much more. These crystals within the collagen fibrils and on the outside coating will grow in certain ways. They refer to these in a multiplicity of (seemingly highly) relevant ways:
orientation--parallel, perpendicular, diffuse no preferred orientation
size, shape, alignment, tilt, thickness(me, bonding!)
increased molecular spacing/ packing order
thinner less well aligned crystals

One paper I read attributes the possibility of "electro chemistry" determining these qualities, but, then, something new from Hansma possibly extraordinarily important. For reasons unknown to me Hansma has suddenly decided to exercise mice on a tread mill. The little fellows were run on tread mills for 30 minutes a day for months. And, never mind that thereafter they decided to "sacrifice" the little critters, something perhaps of interest to PETA, the results were to find a relation between this exercise and the mineral quality of the bone. Discuss, next post.

Training:
Mon. 2/1: Off. Lazy. The trainer, instead of the horses.
Tues. 2/2: It begins. Perfect ground conditions for pasture romping. Horses into it with a lot of volume. Each horse was ridden 5 min. at the walk.
Wed. 2/3: Pasture romp #2. As expected more lazy and slower than yesterday. Each horse again ridden 5 min. at the walk.

This One's For Phil

purchased for $7000 at the 2006 Ocala Fall Mixed sale, and Winner of the 2010 Sunshine Millions Sprint in 1:08.1. Deserves a page on this blog. By Untuttable. Whoever "Phil" is, congrats!