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.
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.
posted by rather rapid at
11:48 AM
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