Overdistance/Underdistance And Injury Prevention

Longer horse races equate closely to the human 880 yard run where the world record, if recollection serves, is around 1 min. 44 sec. set by Jim Ryan way back before the race converted to 880 meters. The human 880 runners have extensive training programs featuring Tom Ivers like 3 month stages and workout techniques such as fartleks, intervals, heat multiples, over and under distance workouts, cross training etc. In terms of distance, if the runner is working on speed he might do a 660 yd dash a few ticks faster than racing speed, or, if he's working on stamina, a 1000 yd. run a few ticks slower than racing speed.

For our horses, unlike the humans, we must discuss every training technique in terms of performance and injury prevention. Essentially for whatever small brain aneurysm consideration of varying human workouts will cause with so many variables available, this is doubled for equines. And, we have the additional thought, for horses, what might work for performance, e.g. multiple heats, would increase our fear of causing injury.

So, how do we approach "varying" workouts, particularly here in terms of distance. Does it make sense, as Bill Pressey recently commented, and I have been considering, to do two workouts a week, one very short and fast, and one long and slow. Certainly we can affect performance in this manner, but we need to consider first the injury causing effects of this or any protocol.

I have already suggested--after due thought on the question--with regard to the simple formula proposed for FR minimums:

4f in :12.5 sec/f every 7 days

that we are unable to compromise this in any respect and still get FR--i.e. whatever the horse does, it needs to get the 4f in :12.5 in the same workout at least once a week. Failure to abide by this imo increases FR risk, and the more weeks this is violated the greater the risk. Put another way--mile workouts in :13s do very little to nothing for racing FR. Check out Trainer Neil Drysdale's injury record and you'll probably get the point.

And so, at the most basic level, my advice is do the minimum by the formula at least once a week. But, as we're considering the possibilities, and want to get a little creative with our horse, why would the following fail to have a weekly FR effect:

Tues: 3f in :35.5
Sun: 8f in :13.5

Would the combo produce FR? Would the combo in addition to racing every 3 weeks 1 1/8 mile produce FR? Next post.

Training:
Weather returns to KC with an inch of rain on top of half a foot of snow.
Sat. 2/26: riderless. managed to get 1.5 miles continuous with some spurts over the snow.
Sun 2/27 Off. Too much water.

Soft Tissue, Distance, And ArchArchArch

There he is. Spittin' image of our colt down to the slope and length of the pasterns. Arch horses seem to have a resemblance to each other. Will say this for ours--those thinking they're breeding weaker horses--I've yet to see a stronger more solid leg structure on a horse than our Rollin' Rodney. At any rate, we're completely OK with continued success for the Arch line of colts. Can trainer of Archarcharch, William "Jinks" Fires pull an Albert Stall as with Blame? We'll see!

As to how much distance a horse need travel in its speed work to avoid soft tissue injury, I've always thought the answer is, pretty much, racing distance. Again, my own thought process on injury avoidance, is to consider the entire panorama of all possible calamities. I.e. for my own horses instead of thinking in terms of "minimums", my thought process involves controlling every single injury causing variable to the extent possible every time we go out there.

As such in terms of soft tissues, I'd like to work up gradually to racing distance and take the horse near racing distance at near racing speed at least once before that first race. For a mile race such a workout might be a mile in 1:45 or 1:46 with several 6f works in near 1:12s. Then I think I am ready to race safely. If I do less, then I worry, and mostly with regard to pulling a sesamoid on a deep sandy surface on race day. And so, the closest I am going to get to science on this subject is that except for two rider errors (i.e. trainer errors of failing to control the rider), in a whole lot of workouts and a few races I have never had a single soft tissue injury.

Training:
Thurs. 2/24 Riderless all out 4 x 3f. Sleet.
Fri. 2/25: Off. 5 inches of snow the weather people forgot to forcast.
Sat. 2/26: Tried to get 'em going riderless in the paddock over the 5 inches of snow. Unable to get the lazy one out of a high stepping trot until yours truly tries to get him going by sprinting in his direction, and trips and takes a dive head first right into an unseen snow bank throwing snow everywhere. This scares the mf into prancing with his tail up, but w/o is on. See if I can duplicate this feat for the first race. 1.5 miles continuous over the snow at real decent speed for the conditions.

Soft Tissue Injury And Distance

Always present, regardless how careful we train, are the hundred things that can go wrong in any given workout. In terms of injury prevention this blog has focused on bones with the thought that general principles of injury prevention, if first identified for fractures, will in general carry over to soft tissue injuries--tendons, ligaments, muscles. Needless to say we may also spend whole chapters on individual body parts, bowed tendons, suspensories, etc. Tom Ivers wrote a whole book on bowed tendons.

I will avoid spending a lot of time on soft tissues both because there is a lot more info already out there on how to avoid those types of injuries, and also because a lot of soft tissue injury prevention involves merely an elevated dose of common sense. Everybody e.g. may visualize pretty much what sort of conditioning it takes to hold those ligaments that hold the sesamoids together and keeps them from pulling apart.

What we do learn as we go--with multiple horses--with regards to soft tissues we need be nearly perfect, and that the first mistake is likely to ruin the horse. A short personal story illustrates the point.

About 2000 I had a spitfire of a little colt named Big Time Bones that prepared for his first race all through the Woodlands meet, and was going to ship him to Blue Ribbon immediately post Woodlands for his first race. Last breeze at the Woodlands my jock, Terry McGee, immediately before the scheduled 5f at racing speed, gets thrown by a 2 year old in the shed row and breaks his collar bone. McGee shows up in the shed row with one of his jock buddies, explains his injury, and says Mr. X Jock can ride the horse. I take one look at Mr. X and see he's maybe 10-13 lbs. heavier than the 110 lbs McGee, McGee's been riding the horse the whole meet, and I've got a 15-1 hand horse.

Yet, it's a crucial breeze. My last one with the race track available. If we're to race 300 miles away we need to go. I have two fears--1. the weight, and 2. that this obviously inexperienced jock will fail to get the lead changes. I instruct a slow breeze than planned--:14s, and on the way to the track emphasize to this dullard of a rider the great importance of aborting down the stretch if the little horse fails the lead change. Explained it 5 different ways and got the affirmative nod that my rider understood.

I was happy that the rider did seem to get the speed, but into the stretch, sure as tootin', Bones stayed on his left lead. Did the rider abort? Nope. Drove him all the way to the wire. 3 days later, bowed tendon, front left. I was happy for Bones that he went on to win two races on that tendon, but this little Secretariat grandson with Bold Ruler also on the bottom and who looked like a Bold Ruler twin with all the talent, I ruined with one freaking mistake after two years of work with the horse.

Moral of story--with tendons, suspensories, you never can make any mistakes. Get to the distance next post.
Training:
Mon 2/21: Off
Tues. 2/22: Riderless turns into a very nice speed workout--about 5 heats at 2f all out that we decline tack work, which proves a subsequent error.
Wed. 2/23: Off. Nob shows up with his various infirmaties severley aggravated by weather conditions and declines to get on less because of pain than slow reaction time needed to get off our spookball. 36 hrs. between workouts decided. The luxury of the Preston Burch pattern. We can take off without damaging the program.
Thurs. 2/24 Morning, 36 hours after last it's into heavy sleet. No riding today but the horses are really into one of their better riderless workouts. Been in training two weeks since the heavy snow, and this one was a nice coda. About 4 times 3f all out with the big fellow showing some nice speed.

A Word On Soft Tissue Injury And Age

Briefly, on a couple of subjects which each might serve as entire chapters.

1. Soft Tissue Injuries, meaning tendons, ligaments and muscles. Last post stated my own fairly firm conviction that enough 4f breezes at the right speeds and frequency will eventually get the horse to FR. How many of such works might be sufficient to pronounce the cannon bones "ready" I will have to leave to individual discretion, trusting, for reasons that follow, that each trainer would pass on the 4f works, and certainly exceed the 4f distance significantly, as appropriate and the racing situation requires.

I have limited discussion to fractures and bones, though "injury prevention", needless to say, includes avoiding every sort of injury including fractures, bowed tendons, suspensories, pulled sesamoids, knee chips, and so on. RR Rule #1, --never do anything with the horse unless you are 100% sure that it can be done without injury--is all encompassing requiring religious observance. And, the important corollary--when in (any) doubt, back off.

My own view, and again this is cursory, is that probably tendons and ligaments, to stay sound and observe Rule #1 above, require works near racing distance. I initially concentrate on protecting sesamoids, but have also learned the hard way that you better, every single day, also consider avoiding every stupidity to prevent that unexpected bow or suspensory injury.

Soft tissue injuries are probably, much more readily than bones, injured by such as rider stupidity, failure of appropriate warm up, failure to change leads, changing weights on the horse, any surprise, etc. etc.

2. Age. Bill Pressey brought this up in comment to last post--how might distance the horse MUST breeze for FR be affected by age. My inexpert answer would involve a subject I have to date avoided for fear it would require another 6 months of posts for full discussion--detraining. How quickly does the older horse lose FR during down time, and what need be done to restore the older horse to FR when (and if) FR is lost.

If we define detraining for this purpose narrowly to bones only, and say that detraining is any reduction of fracture resistance, I believe detraining probably commences within 7 days of the last FR appropriate breeze, and this is for horses of any age. Why?

My theories--without thinking too deeply on the subject for the moment--probably involve on-going "bone destruction" or resorption by the osteoclasts. We know there is a continual removal of the mineral matrix and breaking up of the organic bone by these little critters who at work 100% of the time.

By my rough estimate (was it in the 9/07 or the 9/08 posts?) at any given moment 4% of the bone matrix is undergoing resorption, and 4% of the existing matrix will be destroyed per week!. We may thus calculate that the older horse within 6 months of inactivity or lack of appropriate FR exercise will have pasture ornament bone architecture instead of FR bones.
Possibly the 4% rule can also be applied to the need for appropriate FR type work in any layoff from breezing and racing--e.g. assuming you have an FR horse that raced yesterday, within 7 days 4% of that benefit will be gone. If we fail to breeze appropriately the next week the horse will lose another 4% and so on.

Does the older FR horse need to work in 4f? My thoughts would be that certainly you can vary the works and dip below 4f provided that you are mindful of an "average" work that needs to be done over time, AND also mindful that your 3f or 2f work, while sufficient for performance, fast twitch muscle work and so on, will be insufficient in terms of FR and needs to be made up at some point. The bottom line to me--if, as such as Zito--you keep ignoring appropriate FR distance and the other FR variables, eventually the horse is likely to fracture, regardless of age. Again, this assumes dirt surface, USA style racing.

Training:
Fri. 2/18: 4 times up and down the hill mostly trot.
Sat. 2/19: riderless only 4 or 5 1f bursts in light mud.
Sun. 2/20: riderless 4 or 5 1f full speed bursts in the paddock + tack work--4 times trot-gallop up and down the hill.

Distance: Testing The Theory

By taking one of these 4f FR pills your horse will be ok. Or, will it? The blog has surmised 4f as the minimum distance a horse must breeze to achieve race appropriate fracture resistance (FR). The horse works 4f times "x" number of breezes at minimum speed of :12.5 sec/f and, voila, we are assured the cannon bones will hold together?

In what sort of "first" race? 5f, 6f, 8f, 1 1/16 mile??? And at what racing speed? Are we satisfied in this first race just to get it around there, or are we of questionable sanity and sending the horse all out for the the win in its very first race?

There are, or course, numerous variables affecting FR in course of a race. You probably have more chest hairs than I have to breeze 4f exclusively and send the horse out there for a first race at a mile and a sixteenth intending to go all out for the win.

However, after much consideration my belief is that if you have done enough of those 4fs that your horse will hold together. Why is below, but a short word about how many breezes before the first race are "enough".

Sufficiency in terms of number of breezes prior to a horse's first race is unknown to me, nor has the blog dealt with this issue. I do think we know enough to say that 3 months of once a week breezing holds most horses together provided the horse had some conditioning going in. I'll limit my observation to stating that probably around the 3 month mark the horse will be getting to FR, and also the observation that smart trainers avoid going for the win in the first couple of races. My guess is that there is a much higher injury rate in the first two races of the career or the year than any other single race in a sequence.

The Q whether a pre-first race sequence of 4f breezes is enough for FR strictly in terms of the "distance" instead of number of breezes--probably again the trainer stats, and what we see trainers do and get away with is the main test we have of the theory. The trainer of note that I have observed as using strictly 4f breezes is Zito, although he exceeds that distance frequently before race #1. I have however personally witnessed preparation of youngsters by numerous trainers with 3f and 4 breezing exclusively. While certainty on this is unknown to me, and also that it is true that all of those trainers injure every one of their horses, I believe injury causation for these sorts, including Zito probably results from other variables than the distance of the breezes before the horse's first race. For most of these conventionals the stupidities seem to kick in after racing begins.

And thus--------I am comfortable enough with what I have seen added to what I have considered on this blog to say that 3 months of once a week breezing in 4f at :12.5s will get your horse through any sort of race safely in terms of bones. Needless to say this is a minimal program (as repeatedly stated), and it would take quite a fool to engage in that sort of program with the intent of sending a young horse out there to do 8.5f in :12s. Would that horse racing for an idiot make it through with bone soundness? I'd think that trainer would be skating on the bare edge--and so, please take note that the 4f distance, while considered enough here for minimum FR fails to permit the trainer also to ignore every other aspect of common sense.

The question of distance and soft tissue injury, next post.

Training:
Wed. 2/16: Off.
Thurs. 2/17: 4 times up and down the hill, walk trot followed by 3 or 4 riderless pasture spurts.
Fri. 2/18: 4 times up and down the hill (we're increasing distance now) mostly trot, with enthusiasm.
Sat. 2/19: 5 or 6 riderless 1f spurts in the paddock on light but deep mud.

Distance And The Trainers

So, in support of 4f as the minimum FR distance, so far:
1. The hand clapping experiment that indicates the sensation of engagement in response to concussion. We could presumably conjure up additional experiments of that sort.
2. Supposition as to precisely what occurs at each stride of the breeze at the bone nano level from 1f, 2f,3f,4f, 5f, 6f. In this regards it is believed as follows:
2.5f bone cell/bone lattice--bone materials in general--have become fully engaged. Prior to this point in the :12.5/sec breeze(or faster) engagement is incomplete.
3f The horse has now completed another 10-15 strides with processes fully engaged. There is some minimal FR-remodeling effect at this point!
3-4f My supposition was to carry the breeze at least to 4f for minimal FR sufficiency. That would be--after the 2.5f mark--about 40-45 strides with hoof to ground contact of maybe .5 sec/stride. After 45 engaged strides my belief is that the bone (again--in minimum terms) will experience the post race FR effects that have been posted.
5f is better.
6f Probably this is the range of possible distances where FR effect of the work starts to optimize.
6.5f Is the distance where I have pegged that in terms of bone remodeling going farther will have very little effect--i.e. 6.5 F is enough to get the post race FR processes fully working, and going farther probably adds very little to FR. Please note there is a whole lot of supposition, albeit educated guess type supposition, and zero research for that last statement. After traveling some specific distance, obviously, the horse will be without further FR benefit. I peg this at 6.5f.

And then--
3. Circumstantial Evidence provided by our trainers. I am supposing that these conventional (as defined on this blog) trainers and their slightly more aggressive enlightened peers, such as the late Bobby Frankel, over a period of time with endless numbers of horses start to recognize what works and fails to work in terms of FR. The trainer thought process would be: " hey, if we breeze e.g. 3f we get injuries, whereas, if we breeze 4f we get less, and 5f is better. Frankel fairly obviously--if you look at what he was doing between 1985 and 2000--decided he was satisfied in terms of injury prevention by preparing horses by adhering fairly consistently to 3 months of once a week breezes up to 6f for 1st race prep, and thereafter a combo of once a week 4fs in :48 combined with racing every 2-3 weeks was enought to produce FR.

With Frankel it was 4f + racing after racing had begun. Q--can you get to FR breezing 4f without racing, next post.
Training:
Wed. 2/16 Off.
Thurs. 2/17 4 times up and down the hill, walk down due to the knee, trot up. After the horse was unsaddled did a little pasture running with 3 or 4 nice spurts. The vid is of the knee as it appears last thurs. still about the same.

Distance And Sufficiency!

In short--the horse has to go far enough so that it will receive an appropriate bone "training effect" in response to the exercise. Muscle tissue e.g. quickly "engages" in response to force as the little nano-forks of tissue holding fast against each other lock and pull the tissue into contraction.

At the outset, before spending two years of post analyzing bone tissue, the thought was that bone tissue possibly undergoes a similar process of "engagement" in response to force although you'd think the rate of achieving bone cell engagement much slower than with muscles, ligaments or tendons! And, indeed, on studying the makeup of live bone with it's collagen, water, and various ennervations, its far less brittle and static than we might think, and probably there is definitely a process of engagement in response to force which I have called "girding", tightening, or the like, but also, as described in post after post, numerous additional processes that take place before (in response to warm up), during and after the equine speed work.

In terms of distance we would like to know where within the work these processes engage, and how long after engagement the horse need travel to get a beneficial effect. Thus the concept of "sufficiency" in thinking about distance and injury prevention. What distance is sufficient for FR?

In answer--and way before my own studies involving bone at the nano level--the effort was to imagine or visualize what's happening from the first stride of the breeze on down the track through 1f, 2f, 3f and so on. We know that with the onset of :12.5 sec/f concussive force at nearly 12,000 lbs./sq. inch there will be within the cannon bones the vibration, shaking, colliding of tissues-- such things as bone disturbance, strain gradient, electric polarization, piezoelectric stress, fluid flow effects and so on as described in the posts--a cascading series of events at the nano level resulting in a girding of bonds to force, rearrangement of materials, and finally and probably the most important response in terms of FR--the alignment of atoms, molecules, cells etc. at the nano level in the direction of the force and stress.

The process of repeating hoof strikes of very short duration was likened to beating a stick of wood against a brick wall in similar rhythm and force. If we keep on beating we can shake something that is inert apart until it finally breaks. In terms of the nano materials that make up the stick or the bone it all commences inward with mild disturbance that will increase in intensity with each succeeding strike to breakage.

My own efforts then in visualizing and imagining what was going on in bone from the first stride of the breeze on down the track was that it would take 60-90 strides or probably about 2.5 F until the internal bone mechanisms that respond to exercise are fully engaged. AND remember (or be informed if you have yet to read), that it is the engagement of these processes that will produce the subsequent bone remodeling/strengthening effects, and thus, unless the horse travels at least 2.5 F in its work, I would be doubting there would be much FR benefit. If B. Pressey would be reading this, then, I would differ with his 2-4f in :12s + 6-8f in :13s as producing FR unless the horse goes at least 3f in in :12s. Why? Because neither 2f nor the longer work in :13s has a sufficient FR effect imo. Of course, that sort of work combined with racing might do the job. But, more on racing-breezing combos later.

Next post will discuss how these thought processes fit in with what trainers are doing.

Training:
Mon. 2/14: 10 min walk.
Tues. 2/15: 10 min walk
Wed. 2/16: Off as we decide to transition to morning work.
Thurs. 2/17: Howling wind this morning that will dry things out, but Nob refuses to board, and so we'll try this aft. at 12 min-walk trot, and possibly some paddock work. The knee is looking better.

Distance

The February 2008 posts here noted my fair degree of certainty the speed of :12.5 as the necessary speed to get a remodeling-FR effect. Should anyone doubt this, recommend watching a horse travel and comparing hoof to ground contact of a horse traveling in :13s compared to :12s or :12.5 and take note of the considerable difference in stride style. There is a noticeable transition point between the two speeds. And, again, do we train our horse to safely bear 9600 lbs./sq. inch of concussive that we probably get traveling in :13s, or do we condition the cannons for the 12,000 lbs/sq inch they'll experience for each stride in the race? (for perspective--human marathon run speed creates about 4000 lbs./sq. inch).

How far to take this for an FR training effect. Obviously trainers are all over the place from the 4f of the Zitos to the occasional 7f-8f of such as Neil Drysdale. 5f taken once a week seems more the present day consensus.

For whatever it's worth, I also feel fairly confident that works below 4f have little value in achieving or maintaining FR, though for reasons stated later a sprinter that consistently and frequently does 3f in :12s is going to get there. Frequent 3fs at speed since they seem eminently "safe" seem also an interesting in terms of sprinter "performance".

In late February and March 2008 posts the blog dealt with the issue of "distance" for FR. For any new reader please distinguish breezing for injury prevention-fracture resistance (FR) from breezing for performance. Different worlds!

Those 2008 posts speculated as to the number of hoof strikes it takes to commence a training effect on bone tissue. The racing stride is 25-30 times/f and hence that many ground strikes per F. To determine minimal FR distrance we have to guess at what point these ground strikes, very short in duration, begin to have an effect at the nano level. As to the "effect" we're trying to produce in terms of FR you may read two years of posts on this blog.

To get the sensation of bone concussion I conducted a hand clapping experiment by feeling the effect on my wrist bones of repeated hard claps. Indeed as you pass from 30 claps to 60 claps to 90 you feel significant changes in the way your bones are handling hard concussive force.
My conclusions were:
30 hand claps--wrist bones feel comparatively dead compared to the feeling to come.
60 claps--clapping is easier, more efficient; force and concussion seem to dissipate somewhat.
90 claps--concussion now feels like it's building in the wrist bones; a feeling of strength begins to occur giving a feeling of bone invulnerability.
Be careful trying this. Wrist bones easily strain, fatigue and fracture.
I seems to take at least 60 short strikes of the hands before the bone lattice and cells are completely engaged, and that they are still adjusting to the repeated force between 60 and 90 strikes. And, in my reading since that time certainly the process of "engagement" of nano bone to force would support that certainly the engagement requires a specific number of strikes before the bone is fully girded against the force and the chemical, physical, electrical processes involved in "remodeling" begin to operate.
Training:
Sun. 2/13: Off. Never made it back to the farm.
Mon. 2/14: 10 min. walk under tack. 2011 training officially begins. The knee is still markedly swollen.

More On Q of Speed

My belief is that regardless how far or how often our horse breezes, for injury prevention we MUST achieve a certain minimum speed or otherwise we have a horse at risk. I think we can make that judgment and will dissect it next post.

The above is from my 2/12/08 post. When u start quoting yourself you're in trouble. Nevertheless, the above is important, highly relevant, and there's some logic to back it up. Is there in fact, as I have asserted, a minimum speed the horse must achieve to get an FR effect in it's workouts?
Back in 2008 I analyzed it from several points of view, including this, which speculates how many concussive lbs/sq. inch might be working at various levels of speed.
:15s--7500lbs./sq.inch
:14s--8800lbs/sq.inch
:13s--9600lbs/sq.inch
:12s--12000lbs/sq.inch
:11s and 10s: ??? possibly back to about 9600 lbs/sq. inch
And as the horse speeds up there's the transition in stride style. Watch 'em--flicking, bounding, pounding, and then when the horse hit's :11s and high :10s quite possibly the lbs/sq. inch goes back down to 9600 lbs/sq. inch for the reason that it's bounding along so fast the actual time that hoof to ground contract lasts is reduced say e.g. from .25 sec to .15 sec. There's less time as the hoof strikes for the concussion to work at these dramatically faster speeds!
At what point does full bounding and max concussive effect set in? I have determined this at :12.5 rate of speed, i.e. the point at which there is adequate force for appropriate remodeling, e.g. do you want to per the likes of Neil Drysdale, prepare your horse for 9600 lbs/sq. inch and then enter the race at 12,000 lbs. per sq. inch of force? Drysdale wins one occassionally. Which of Drysdale's horses have ever lasted for any length of time?
A summary of these thoughts appeared here:
http://ratherrapid.blogspot.com/2008/02/conclude-speed-and-fracture-resistance.html
Training:
Sun. 2/13 Will post a picture of the knee, blown up again today. Undoubtedly they were running in the nice weather than started yesterday. Will do 10 min. of walk under tack this eve.

Brief Review Of The Formula

I'd started on FR in early 2008 considering each of the 3 variables but did so at that time in terms of "bone remodeling". What would/would not cause "remodeling when we sent the horse out there. The term FR came later.
And, this interesting sequence from the 2/11/08, exactly 2 years ago when this subject coincidentally was started:

"For discussion purposes, let's note some possible approaches to working for the Derby. Assume each of the below contenders races at over 1 mile once a month to Derby time. Here is the breezing schedule for four of them:

1. Frankel's :48 once a week.
2. Drysdale's 1:45 mile every 10 days with plenty of 2 minute licks and accelerations in between.
3. Mandella's 4-7f :12.5/f works every 10 days.(2011 note--somewhere along the way I guess it was decided Mandella goes every 7 days. Probably he's inconsistent.)
4. Pletcher's 5f in 1:02 for three weeks, then race, then 3 weeks of no works and start again.
Quite a contrast there if you look at it closely. I'll give my answer in advance that "none of the above" is truly effective for fracture resistance and give my reasons, and get to Burch and Carl Nafzger and Street Sense next posts."

"None of the above", lol, and now I am touting Frankel as "sufficient". Probably my thinking in 2008 is that Frankel and racing only once a month and then the Derby that 4f is an insufficient distance. More on this a little later.
First, the formula:
4F in 12/5 sec./f every 7 days = FR
and a brief review of how I arrived at the first two variables.
Minimum speed I ferreted out on two basis and think I am very comfortable that I am absolutely correct. One was stride differences as the horse changes gears from :15s to :14s to :13s, and then to :12.5. Guarantee you'll see a significant increase in concussion from :13s to :12.5 if you watch your horse closely in it's work. There is a transition there somewhere between ground flicking and ground pounding. I think it logical that some pounding is required for FR. The second thing was my own subjective experience being on horses at speed. Again this involved where you cross over from failing to feel the thud of the hoof to ground and you start feeling and hearing it when you're on board. Again, the cross over is between :13s and :12.5.
Thus, in terms of Bill Pressey's comment proposing 2 breezes a week--one 2-4f in :12s and the other 6F or more in :13s-:15s--if the horse does less than 4f in :12s, will it get there? As the formula is in minimums, "no" is the blunt answer, but, more discussion coming.
Training:
The knee bump was bigger and hotter Thurs. night then it was when I first diagnosed it on Mon., but by Fri night it had receded very significantly. Decided to give it to Sunday. Want to avoid doing any work on what might be a flayed membrane holding in hylraunic acid. The weather started 1/10 so we're about 34 days of very little training.

FR Formula--A Closer Look

4F in 12/5 sec./f every 7 days = FR

Is the formula valid? Would faithful adherance to this exercise schematic achieve fracture resistance (FR) and keep the bones together through any normal race?

Emphasize what's being looked at is "minimums"!!! This formula is anything but touted as something the horse should do. Instead it is a formula identifying the "bare edge", the point where the arrow has just barely crossed over the red line on our FR odometer from unsafe to safe in terms of FR. What does that mean? If the horse does any less with any of the three variables the horse will be on the wrong side of FR. In terms of the real world and this formula and getting to FR more will certainly be better!

For further clarification--all three of the variables have to be met in most of the breezes. Should e.g. the horse do 3 months of this prior to it's first race and a couple of them go say in :13s instead of :12.5s, the horse would probably be there, but would avoid making doing less with any of the three variables a habit!

Each aspect of the formula was given careful consideration on this blog--with the aspect "careful consideration" having a bit of weight--and, this formula has had some real world testing. The typical Bobby Frankel work of the '80s and '90s was a 4f in :48 once a week after racing had begun. Nick Zito and 4f works in :12s are synomymous and some of Zito's horses do survive(Sun King comes to mind), although Zito intervals are normally 9 days. And there are numerous others probably including all the Frankel copycats.

Also note, that for Frankel, this was the formula after racing began! Prior to race #1 Frankel horses would do 5 and 6f works in gradually increasing speed mostly for 3 months at the race track. I was always impressed with Frankel's extensive prep!

I have zero idea of Frankel's injury rate except by observation it was undoubtedly significantly better than average. Yet, using Frankel's stable as a guinea pig, you'd have to say that by Frankel it's the formula + every 2-3 weeks racing! I.e. Frankel did more than than the formula. And, Zito does less. Zito has a horrific injury rate which possibly tells us something about "strict adherance" to each variable!
More testing of the formula, next post.
Training: first day of Spring in KC turned in to -2 degrees last night. But, if the forecast is right, we have 4 hours to go as I type before Spring indeed has sprung here in KC!

Wed. Misc.

A night of deprived sleep due to extreme cold. New snow. Truck gets stuck etc. But, spring is here today. Mark it! Continue tomorrow.

A Proposed Fracture Resistance Formula

The formula is ready to be rolled out.
What's being calculated is minimums in terms of what's necessary to achieve and maintain fracture resistance (FR). The variables are distance, speed and frequency. Here it is:

4F in 12/5 sec./f every 7 days = FR

What does this mean--how to interpret?
First--each variable is expressed in terms of its' own minimum. If the horse in its speed work travels less distance than 4f the work will be without a training effect in terms of injury prevention/fracture resistance. If the speed is slower than 12.5 sec.f same deal--it's absent FR training effect. More than every 7 days, ditto.
The import is that all three minimums have to be met or else the particular work will be without an FR training effect. Consider each variable in the stated formula the RR blog absolute minimum!
Of course, even before the formula appears the comments come in with questions. Anonymous chimes what about 8f or doing 6f in :13s. Bill Pressey comments that he's favoring 2 speed works/week, one faster at 2-4f in :12S/one slower 6-8F in :13s-:15s. Sounds nice, but beware. I have tried it on track. Lot's of problems that I will save to detail when/and if, I ever get to performance. My own thought process in terms of an ideal performance/injury prevention training schematic has been, for a while now, somewhat similar to Presseys but 2 speed works every 5 days, one short and fast, the other long and slow. Note though--I'm not there yet. Fraught with numerous practical difficulties when you get the horse on the track!
There obviously are many ways to peel the apple for injury avoidance and performance both with our horses and in athletics in general. There are so many variables we can tweak! #1 though, before we start playing around, is to know what the heck we're doing in terms of preventing injuries to our horse because, unless we know that, nothing else will matter for that particular horse.
Thus, a closer look at the above formula, tweaking it, or even--does it have any validity at all--is next.
Training: The horses hardly seemed all that happy this morning with the plunging temps. Unknown how these little birdies keep from freezing solid. If they dislike the cold, heck with 'em. Let 'em fly south. The knee bump is reduced a bit. We're still off in anticipation of spring starting this weekend.

Mon Misc.

Back, and hoping to get in gear on this blog tomorrow. Mojo has been affected by weather, and, there was the little thing Friday night when by the light of the snow I took a view at at our boy hoping he'd lost a little of his mass on the one nutrious meal a day and hay during the off time, and indeed somewhat more lithness showed. But then, what's this flashing on his left knee? A bump the size of a walnut. From a kick, no doubt. Never fails. Three days of warm finally and we are unable to train. Luck been good with a couple of other of these bumps over the yearsas they go down fast. Hopefully we'll be in business by the warm up this weekend!

Txs all for the comments and B. Pressey posting that physiology book. Am reading the section on "skeletal". As to Plecher, seems the one thing that's unknown is what he does on the off days. Would be an interesting fellow to talk to since he's intelligent and you'd think as such would be in tune with the latest. My best guess about Plecher, he's other than an athlete, has never been, and so, lacks that intuitiveness. And he's figured a program that works for him. Additionally there's that thing I have noted observing coach after coach--they just rarely change their stripes, regardless. Seems the nature of the beast. A good trainer today will be good in 10 years, and the other ones the way they are. Some of these young bucks coming up are going to change things, maybe fairly quickly. Comma At The Top Types.

Wed. Misc.

Back in my chair after the "blizzard of the century" hits/fails to hit KC. The media had the residents so spooked Mon. you'd have thought a nuclear bomb would be incoming. Predictably everything was about half as bad as forecast. Half the snow, half the wind speed, and 10 degrees too warm. Locking horses in the barn area was an overreaction probably.

At the end my truck with its two wheel drive and summer tires made it to the office quite nicely, although clearing 7 inches off the 200 yd. driveway is exercise I prefer avoiding. In the end, Tues. was less severe than two other snowfalls we'd had earlier, and, we did manage to get in a pasture romp with about 3 nice spurts from the Rolling one when the snow was at 3 inches. 18 hours from the start of summer, I am thinking.