Past The 5F And Into The Work

Again the Q, how did Rachel Alexandra become Rachel Alexandra? The earlier RA breeze video I'd posted shows near perfect rider work and, in terms of animal training, also near perfect trainer work, even if u might criticize the exercise physiology a bit.

Right now the blog is on animal compliance, and hence animal training as we go around the race track. With one that has already been through this mill and obviously been in very skillful hands, as Rachel, it becomes very easy IF u continue to do things right. First, as owner/trainer, it helps to know what is correct. Again, you can see the deficiencies at every track every day. Mostly u'd prefer what u'r watching to be other than ur animal.

Our rider, and let's suppose he's as obviously skilled as the one in the photo--perfect balance, perfect form, very nice rein work and rein control, working with the stride of the horse from what shows---has about the 5.5f changed to the right lead, gotten the expected lead change burst from the horse and brought it under control, has hit the 5f at what he calculates is a :15 sec./f (we're doing a 2m gallop) rate of speed. As he passes the 5f, what now?

If u think u know everything about training race horses u should be able to answer the Q. What now, as the horse passes the 5f starting point of its work. What is going through the rider's mind, and what is he supposed to be doing?

Let's suppose at this point the rider figures he's done a very decent job in this work. He's done everything successfully to this point that's been blogged about. As he's heading for the 4.5f he looks to the left for a panorama of the entire infield of the race track with a blurring of white rail posts and ground passing below about 26 mph. There's a mixed sensation--wheeee this is fun combined with (as the jock hears and feels the lead front leg thud into the ground with each stride--we're into serious stuff now) the concern that the cannon survives to the next stride.

The skillful rider will also gather himself at this point with his mission. Thought--hey, I'm into the work, what I'd like to do at this point is get the horse into a mechanical efficient stride. This should be easy for the fresh animal from the get go and increasingly more difficult as the horse goes around the race track and muscular fatigue accumulates. The jock wants the last few strides of this two minute gallop to be absolutely as picture perfect as the first few. The idea would be to give rider help to the horse to achieve this goal of the perfect two minute gallop.

To achieve this goal of the perfect two min. gallop, which means efficient mechanical and consistent striding all the way around the race track concerns are

rider position on the horse
rider tension and feel on the reins and bit
rider monitoring correct speed and stride length

If you watch ten jocks ur likely to see 10 riding styles, and let's note there is more than one way to conduct a successful ride. But every rider, as he goes into the work need understand that maximum stride efficiency for the horse requires perfect rider balance over the center of gravity of the horse and correct shift or maintenance of that position with the forward propulsion of each stride. For most of these riders this is fairly easy, but let's observe that some are better than others. If we have one of those that is just a little off, over the long haul as owner trainers, we might need to work with that rider. Am now out of time and will get into the bit work next.
Training:
Wed. 11/16: riderless with some nice full speed bursts.
Thurs. 11/17: off