Detraining And Engagement

"Virtue itself scapes not caluminous strokes
The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed..."
Hamlet

Shakespeare's words applied to our horses. This post two unrelated concepts deserving further consideration in deciding whether the "injury prevention" portion of the horse's specific exercise program will produce the necessary bone remodeling in terms of FR.

First consider--in terms of deciding the sufficiency of our program to prevent fractures, i.e. dealing with the variables we will prescribe for speed, distance and frequency, very important, it seems to me, is the concept that of engaging the physiological processes that produce FR. I'd feel better leaving the track on speed days knowing that the exercise has been produced correctly both to engage FR processes and after engagement to carry the specific exercise variable on long enough that indeed, post exercise some bone remodeling will be occurring.

Many trainers, ignorant of specifics, fool themselves into thinking that whatever they seem to conjure up for the horse will do the trick. The typical work for many of our good conventionals provides the flagrant example: the horse barely warms into the planned 4f work in :49, travels primarily in :13 and change for the first furlong, travels in :13 for furlong #2 and then comes flying home to get the speed. Has this horse really done anything in terms of FR? Or, can this trainer leave the track being comfortable with the condition of his horse's bones.

If the Q for this trainer would be "engagement" of the FR processes, possibly the crucial Q might be easier to answer. When I am reexamining my horses's pre-race breezes, or in season breezes, maybe I'd want to mark in the notebook those works that "engaged" FR processes. I'd like to see a lot of "FRs" marked across that page. Hopefully the idea of "engagement" helps in that sort of thinking.

The second concept is one that I've avoided for fear of having to write another book, but it's necessary to note that if we fail to understand detraining we know nothing about the condition and soundness of our animal. Detraining of course refers to the reversal of the training process including all the physiological processes when we lay off the horse from exercise. The layoff can be as short as one day on up to infinity. At some point after the last appropriate exercise detraining begins. Continue with that next post.
Training:
Thurs. 3/10: In raw still very wet conditions with standing water here and there we were foiled in an attempted pasture romp. I wanted to duplicate the racing from 3 days ago, but the older horse, normally a kamikaze was having none of it. Refused to run beyond much a trot, and I myself lacked the air to chase down the horses going in different directions. Finally gave up. Later in the evening the older horse colicked and I understood the problem. Try again tomorrow. All ended well.