Fri. Misc.

Got the horse around the track and thinking, this week, now what? The blog is on the subject of performance which is to say winning races. The original plan was to put my own horse through the paces hopefully to a race. Easy to do when u have a race track in your back yard as we used to. And, I found out in November that Eureka Downs is boarded up. The best laid plans of mice and men tend to go awry. I'll post the situation of the RR stable after the New Year's day and hopefully then something that makes sense regards getting some wins on a race track.

Summary II: ENHANCE

Getting the ENHANCE part of "Preserve and Enhance requires, owner/trainer/rider knowledge, and getting compliance from the animal.

The photo demonstrates "compliance" as problematical even for the .00000001% toughest humans on the planet as shown, female riders-and a little microcosm of typical compliance problems.

I've had horses easy to train, horses hard to train, and all in between. I retired a couple before they hit the race track for the only reason that they were so dangerous that good conscience prevented me from putting a rider on board, and one of those was by Broadbrush. I still reflect on those two capable horses and think "damm".

This is what we ask the riders to do to get our horse around the track following today's training instructions. From 9 feet high up it all begins with control, and keeping in mind-- we have good intelligent riders( a rare species), and also an abundant number of pea brained or pea hearted types or, heaven forbid, a combination. Those dealing daily with "riders" will have stories.

The rider's thought process motoring around the race track runs double track: control and carrying out the instructions. I'd say the former occupies about 80% of the brain, with 20% brain left over to consider what the horse is supposed to be doing. Because rider safety is such a huge concern, when that rider requests blinkers therefore, that we think unnecessary, that rider gets the blinkers or any other "equipment" without further Q. Because safety is such a huge factor, when our rider screws up something or everything, if we think the rider has possibilities we work with that rider on a daily basis correcting each perceived problem one by one.

Control on the race track requires "technique" and riding skill that some possess more than others. Its often necessary to match horses with skill level. Safety factors out of the way we can then go on to the numerous performance variables as the horse goes around the track. These involve warm up, monitoring warm up, evaluating warm up to get optimal performance, training the horse to the type of warm up we want to accomplish--and for complicated warm ups it's nice to get daily practice if ur rider will comply--getting the speed, restraining the horse to the speed, monitoring the speed, monitoring the stride, keeping the horse focused and the stride together and efficient, planning for and getting the leads (above all), avoiding rider stupid stuff, monitoring the breathing and taking correct action after good breathing falls apart, and finally pulling up the eager animal and conducting a proper warm down--see Bill Pressey comments couple of posts ago, although personally I might differ that destroying a few capillaries is irrelevant. Speculation!

Part of the above process will be maintaining the enthusiasm, eagerness and thus cooperation from our horse. There are reasons some horses quit trying out there. Likely these have been taken once too often beyond the brink, or have been victims of "stupid stuff" which even with their walnut brains they eventually figure out two and two, or, as has been the case in my stable a time or two, they start resent having to work too hard. This latter problem I was always aware with with my Rollin' Rodney, and, indeed, I got always enthusiastic response under tack from him, possibly by doing a little less than the exercise physiology ideal might dictate. Better, I am thinking to have an eager horse do less, than a recalcitrant animal that finally quits the workouts.

In truth there's so much going on out there that it's necessary for us as owner/trainers from the ground #1 to know what's going on with the rider so that we may make corrections, as well as the basics of exercise physiology. There are certain things each rider "must" do to preserve and enhance our horse. Absolute necessity. If you've got a rider violating this basic premise, you need correct, whatever it takes, while you still have a horse. On the brighter side, once we get that rider and horse together with our training schematic the "enhance" stuff presumably results over time in some nice purse money for our needy pockets.

Summary I: PRESERVE

Big big part of race horse performance involves the practical effect of getting the horse safely around the race track and accomplishing the training objectives. Training schematics, all the best laid plans, become rather irrelevant unless we're able to execute them on the race track.

While in human athletic training the limits of training involve intuitive ability and will to carry out the training schematic, with horses quite regrettably we're substantially limited by the ever shrinking pool of capable riders and the stark reality that our large investments are at the mercy by and large of 120 lbs junior H.S. graduates often in various states of further disability ranging from were they are at with their riding, attention spans, drugs and alcohol, or even the ability of the particular jock to pay attention to a single mount in the midst of an exhaustive morning/afternoon riding schedule.

There are thus in horse racing practical problems of acquiring a capable rider for our horse and then the bricks and mortar work of getting that rider to carry out a program.

These are large obstacles that have done in large percentages of wide eyed neophytes. Presume, however, for discussion purposes, that we have the intelligence, money and position on the race track and energy day to day to put somebody on our horse that at least has a chance of carrying out the designs for this horse.

What in summary is it the rider need do with our horse? In this mode, think "preserve and enhance" which are broad words to describe what needs to be going on out there on the oval when our horse is galloping.

The big one is the PRESERVE as owner/trainer better have the understanding any rider, good and bad, can ruin your horse's career TODAY by what I call "stupid stuff". I'll avoid repeating once again a list of rider stupid stuff that goes on daily by the moment at tracks throughout the country, and merely make the point that anyone wanting to succeed with a horse better understand the definition and details of stupid stuff for otherwise, although your horse may survive today, it's not for long on a race track.

If, e.g., you somehow believe your horse will survive breezes without appropriate warm ups, persevering on the wrong lead, cantering the horse down the race track side ways, stupid unexpected pull ups, unbalanced riding, breezing half a mile on one lead etc. etc. etc. good luck to you. You'll need it.

The PRESERVE-- understandin the term combines with communicating the urgency to our rider. From my practical experience this is hardly done on day one with the new rider. Instead, we plan our initial work outs to be simple enough that hopefully nothing will happen as we acclimate our rider, day by day, to the requirements.

My own technique with riders was generally to introduce and emphasize one thing I wanted done per day, effusive praise after the particular goal in fact occurs, and then reinforcement by mentioning verbally, generally on the walk to the race track, every single day thereafter.

I know that leads or failure to get them are the #1 cause of race horse injuries, and that is generally where I began with my riders. Lucky to have one that understands "leads" intuitively, and you can get on to the other stuff. If you have a rider failing to get leads or oblivious to lead changing you are playing Russian roulette with your animal.

B. Pressey's remarks last post go to the workout, and will get to them. Merry Xmas to Bill. Continue next post.

Finishing The Work

By all accounts the horse in the photo is still very together as it finishes. The rider, if you draw a line through the center of gravity of this situation is perfectly placed to move forward into correct position as this "bound" progresses. This vid also shows the interesting elevation the front of the the horse gets that we normally miss in live views from the ground. This elevation also shows when I freeze framed the Rachel Alexandra vids.

Looking at this jocks hand position it should be obvious that nothing is happening in terms of bit manipulation and that this jock is merely doing an excellent job of staying with his horse's motion through the jarring and concussion absorbed by his ankles and thighs.

And so, as I on my mythical animal am motoring down the stretch in a 2m gallop that will finish at the 5f what am I doing? As I cross the finish line I am starting to try to pay attention to my horse's breathing. This is difficult because there are wind conditions where it's difficult to hear anything past a certain speed. Stick your head out the window of your car at 35mph and you get the amount of wind jocks get riding in :12s.

What I am listening for is whether the horse is breathing normally, whether there's any lock up in the breathing and to what extent my horse might be laboring in this work. I certainly want to pull the horse up and stop the work at any sign of lock up in breathing certainly to stop any flipping of the palate, but also to avoid discouraging the horse by driving him past the point where he can breathe. This monitoring the breathing is much more important at full speed than it is at the 2m gallop, although for the unfit horse even breathing well for a mile at :15 sec/f can be a challenge.

Trainers, wrongly, imo opinion, particularly early in training send their horses out to do 3f works or 4 or 5f works when what they should be doing is telling the jock to send the horse until the point on the race track where the breathing locks up. At the breathing lock up the work aborts. This of course happens farther and farther down the track as conditioning improves. An e.g. of this--when I was doing Preston Burch every three day breathing work at Eureka I'd noticed at the outset that my mount was in the throes of breathing lock up after about 4.5f. Within two weeks this was happening after 6f and so on. Breathing improves as the horse conditions and is an excellent monitoring device for the fitness of our animals.

Thus as my horse crosses the finish line heading for the Club House turn in addition to doing everything I'd been doing--holding the horse together in optimal stride, monitoring the speed with appropriate points of urging, planning the lead changes where, how and how fast etc., at this point late in the work I've got my head a little forward listening for the breathing.

If all is going well our work merely continues till it finishes at the 5f and at this point I am calculating how well this went in terms of where we are in the training and what this particular horse will be able to do next. It is a tremendous training advantage to be riding your own horse, and short of that to have a rider with whom you may communicate that is able to tell you more than "he went good".

After this 2m gallop finishes at the 5f we are into the "slow up" which may go well or be a struggle to get the horse pulled up depending on the enthusiasm and conditioning of the animal. The major bit of instruction here is what is the proper method after the horse has stopped.

In this mode consider what is happening to the horse physiologically--and this is less for the 2m gallop than at full speed. Unknown to me exactly how quickly the heart rate comes down in the gallop out and stop, but would suspect at the point the horse is stopped heart rate is still very high and powerful. Consider this in terms of the jock that--the minute he stops his horse he just starts walking.

I have an opinion on this--nobody else has ever expressed the concern--that if, when the horse stops, the jock merely walks the horse that the quickly powerfully beating heart will create very high blood pressure in the tiny lung capillaries--ie. lung blood is no longer being dissipated quickly by the exercise but the heart is still beat fast and strong--and that as a result of this some capillaries may burst.

Unknown that this actually occurs but this makes good logical sense to me. The correct procedure after the slow down in a fast work is trotting instead of walking until the heart rate comes down!!!

Some final thoughts on getting the horse around the race track, next post.

Enhance Part of the Rider Equation

Depth of divets. Left click this enlarge for a clear view of divet depth. They'll be deeper yet near the inner rail. Get a few more horses out there and this looks like an egg carton.

Freeze framing the inside rider between the 1:41 and 1:53 mark gives superb look at what the rider actually sees and does. Let's say this differs substantially as to what we see from the ground with riders going by or what shows from the vids on race day with the field moving down the back stretch where everything looks nice and smooth and coordinated. The below vid fairly clearly shows that from on top things are quite a bit more precarious than they look from the ground.

At the beginning of this vid btw the horse is throwing its head undoubtedly because the rider is trying to switch to right lead to start out on the backstretch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ONzp3xU4qU

What is the inside jock doing in that short window there is for watching closely. His hands on the reins are glued to the horse's neck and the only hand motion visible is caused by the horse's moving neck. Otherwise the hands look motionless to me, and I'd think the snug reins merely hold the bit taught in the horse's mouth. The horse "takes" the bit at speed meaning it is stationary in the mouth moving only in tandem with the motion of the horse's head.

Is the jock doing anything with his fingers to "round on the bit". I doubt it. Is the jock doing anything with the rythm of his arm motion--up and down, maybe--in terms of rounding on the bit. If he is, I'm unable to see it.

What looks to me is happening, this rider is motionless and glued on the horse. Any motion that appears in the vid is caused by the horse with some motion in the rider's thighs and calves in terms of absorbing concussion.

I view this rider's position on the horse as pretty good, but less than perfect. Watching this gives a lesson in rider selection. Ideally we'd like this rider's butt just a tad farther back for purpose of centering over the center of gravity. But, this jock is unable to do that due to his body build. He has to maintain a slightly forward position because if he crouched more than he is his thighs would be unable to comfortably absorb the concussion and keep him steady. You can only crouch to a certain extent and still have the flexibility necessary to maintain your position. In a practical sense this means, everything else being equal, we want shorter lighter riders. This rider is a bit taller and heavier than the ideal, but is riding about as well as he can for his body style.

In terms of what this jock has done to "enhance" the horse's performance from the 4.5f, this to me is just a normal jock rider that differs a bit from what I do.

Thus I'll give my own thought process as we go around, some of which likely comes from my own lack of experience, since jocks probably do habitually what I must think about.

From the 4.5f among all the other things which includes primarily maintaining correct riding technique to stay out of the horse's way, I am calculating the coming lead change past the 4f. And, at this lead change here is where I differ from the average track rider.

I know--in this typical warm up to the work that the horse has warmed up insufficiently on it's left lead. Why is it that injuries mostly occur on the left front? This is it. The jocks never warm up the left front. On the pony horse the horse is always forced to gallop on its right. In a 6f race, how amazing is it that most of those horses have not taken a single stride on their front left leads until they hit the turn just past the 4f? And, the minute they switch many jocks are urging their horses at that point. Is it any wonder we get front left leg injuries?

Thus, past the 4f at the lead change to the left front I plan to restrain the enthusiasm of my horse and make him take a 3 or 4 easier bounds to warm up that left. Any spurting in the final turn will--for my mount--come after the 3f when I am more comfortable the left lead has today had at least a few bounds of work.

The competitive spots on the race track therefore, for my horses, will be the entire back stretch but particularly late, a little relaxing when the horse first hits its left lead into the final turn, and respurting at the 3f to the wire. Two turn races we can warm up the left on the club house turn and begin our spurting at the 4f if we have a conditioned animal and that would be our strategy.

For the present 2m gallop w/o with the mythical horse getting to the 4f will be a little different than it would be at racing speed. At the slower speed the rider does have more effect on the gallop and efficiency and optimal stride. At 2m gallop there can be some rounding of the bit, holding the horse together in doing such, and this is certainly a focus with each and every stride as we get past the 4f into the turn. The horse will still be full of enthusiasm at this point, and I am trying to hold him steady to the speed. This requires stride by stride rider concentration instead of being up there thinking about the lovely chick you met at the bar the night before.

Take note that each and every stride gets a different motion from the horse to the rider. I am fighting the horse buffeting me about with it's galloping while trying to avoid being a hindrance, and at 2m speed, trying to "improve" the stride. How we try to improve differs with the horse.

Late in the final turn around the 2f we start trying to hold the horse together. Most horses are pretty strong in the first half of their gallops. For important reasons to be discussed at some point that primarily involve weight and carrying tremendous weights for distance, strength both muscular and cardiovascular will generally start to flag around the 2f pole. Most horses will at that point by their enthusiasm carry a strong gallop past the 2f. However, my experience is that after the lead change to the right that most do automatically just before the 3/16th, after a few bounds in the stretch on the right lead serious fatigue commences.

I am anticipating all this as I near the 2f. One thing I would like to do with every horse-- and have never to date succeeded--is, into the stretch--to keep the horse on its left lead a couple two or even three strides longer and thus change to the right at the 3/16th or even beyond. By my thinking, near the wire therefore, the horse will have done less strides on its right lead and be stronger late race.

Unfortunately in a practical sense the beasts just ignore this and change automatically as soon as they're able going into the stretch likely due to fatigue on the left lead. Let's remember that the left lead both in bone and muscular terms received an improper warm up, and so, it's hardly a surprise they quickly fatigue on the left (provided you understand the physiology of warm up and its effects).

I've tried a lot of things to get a later lead change into the stretch. First, I do absolutely nothing to signal a change to the right, and, I might actually try to whip or urge the horse a little faster to continue on its left. I might hold the neck and head a little to the right to make changing harder. But, my beasts almost always automatically switch much earlier than I want.

Once the switch to the right lead is made the rider is looking at a long straight away with potential traffic, and we want to negotiate this at steady speed to maintain this 2m clip workout into the Clubhouse turn finishing at the 5f. Long way to go yet right there at the 3/16 pole. Lot can happen.

Horse's seem to have maximum concentration around the lead change and a few bounds past, and, without proper signals or other stimulation there is a tendency for the horse to float along instead of purposely gallop late in the stretch. My aim is to catch this relaxation on the horse's part and exert any proper urging by whip or voice exactly when necessary. A brush of the whip on the horse's front right shoulder will generally get a burst of enthusiasm for the next two or three strides. I also use voice to let the horse know I am with him and monitoring him--and this is another reason why I am a bit mystified by the almost total lack of voice in the jock cam vids. I tend to be chirping at my horse at appropriate times and from my experience I believe they actually relate to voice and understand. "Good boy" means something to the horse trained to understand that command.

On around the Club House Turn to the end of the work, next post.

Riders And The "Enhance" Part Of The Equation

(Edit: unclear, unfortunately. Freeze frame at the end of :02 to see one deep divet.)

As promised, a vid with closeup of the "depth" of the cups on the race track appear in the first few seconds of the vid. This is a wet track. Divets are just as deep on dry, and visualize hoof to ground contact that lands on side of one of those depressions. In human terms, of such thing are sprained or twisted ankles made. In horse terms, think fracture, pulling off a sesamoid, tendon/ligament strains, etc. I have theorized that many many equine injuries have their origins from trainers/and jocks carelessly breezing horses over rough morning tracks.

Of course, in general, most of the horse's make it through these tracks. Why? Because the weight of the horse and force of the stride is such that the hoof will cut right through the divet into the base of the track and most landings will be solid despite track conditions. The rub happens on that occasional hoof strike that is bound to land awkwardly in such track conditions. I, indeed, have had jocks breeze my horses in such conditions in the situation where "getting the jock" I needed was only at the times in the morning after the track was cut up. It's a balancing act. You risk your horse with the wrong jock, or skip a w/o due to no jock, or take the risk of a bad track. The obvious solution is pick the jock that's "available" at the right time. Easier said than done in this day of scarce riders.

But on to the Q of what the rider does from the 4.5f in terms of enhancing the horse's performance. Last post suggested freeze framing our jocks to see what's going on with them. First the exercise vid, and, unknown where this is. Sure as heck looks like a 1.5 mile track,but who knows.

Freeze frame the rider on the left at the 1:41 mark then watch him for about 15 seconds. What is this rider doing exactly, and what's going through his head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ONzp3xU4qU

At the 1:41 mark, freeze frame, we see the intense concentration of this rider just ahead, and thereafter some glances around for better look at what's going on. This is an acey-doocy rider (left stirrup lower than the right) somewhat unbalancing. In general this jock's position on the horse seems excellent.

Otherwise this jock is sitting chilly with a snug hold on the reins that seems to have very little practical effect on the horse that is basically doing it's own thing.

#1 I feel sure, in terms of "enhance" these two jocks primarily are trying to carry out their workout instructions. Get the right speed. Keep the right speed. Where am I vis a vis the poles in terms of the speed, how fast are we going between the poles--experience gives them clocks in their heads. On board I can generally fairly accurately calculate how fast I am going. Continue, next post.

From The 4.5f: Preserve And Enhance

Few internet images remain of this fellow. Tom Ivers early on used the phrase PRESERVE AND ENHANCE that encapsulates, pretty much, TB race horse training. When we're out there struggling, trying to figure out what the heck we should be doing, think "preserve and enhance".

And so, with the mythical rider now at the 4.5f near the beginning of a 2m gallop, what is going through the rider's head at that point? Consider first the "preserve" portion of the equation, and this certainly applies to horse and rider.

Viewing those jock web cam vids watch those front lead legs slamming into the track. Running on one side of the brain every single time I go out there--maybe the jocks think differently than do I--will this horse survive the next stride(that's stride not ride)? Any outward signs of injury or fracture? How is my horse traveling today? We are motoring through the divets with my eyeballs glued ahead and down on the race track attempting to steer the safest course to avoid any bad step or unsafe landing on the side of a deep divet. How deep are they? Vid next post. And, needless to say, for my self, I am planning an exit if something goes awry. Falling at 35 mph with about 1.5 seconds reaction time can be hazardous to your health.

In the mornings, particularly if u go out there when I do when the track is closest to pristine condition there are also traffic problems to consider--ahead there's invariable the older oblivious rider sure to steer directly in your path especially near the gap or that pony person way too far on the inside, and, from behind the unexpected worker going faster than you that may spook your animal. Traffic and planning the pathway is track number 2 running in the rider's head in the morning.

For those of us believing we can improve our horses, at the 4.5f what is the the rider thinking about on the "enhance" part of the equation? This likely is what the trainer would be working on with his morning riders.

First, to view what these riders are doing on board in terms of "enhance" you get a better view by freeze framing those web cam shots. What are these pro riders, particularly the ones at Delmar doing. And take note there are subtle differences in technique compared to those riders on the bull ring at Hastings. Interesting that they have different techniques in the stretch and I was surprised at how little verbal play there was with these world classers at Delmar compared to the whooping and hollering I used to hear at the quarter pole at the Woodlands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkFsj705ziE&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLF21D9CC7EF4BD762

On From The 4.5f

In the picture is worth a thousand words category the last post vid on board camera shows two things that would escape an observer from the ground. One is the obvious amount of force and concussion that is visible with those front lead legs slamming into the ground, and the other is--ask urself--at those speeds what can the Jock really do in terms of improving the horse's stride? Very little imo, but look at this closely for your own opinion.

My mythical exercise rider on his hypothetical horse has reached the 4.5f for a 2 min. gallop that started at the 5f. What is on the rider's mind at this point in the gallop? What are they trying to accomplish on board?

Some more excellent on board camera work might give provide some clue as to what's going on and what's on the riders minds. Watch these also with supposition that the riders in terms of getting a stride or affecting stride are primarily just staying out of the horses way.

And btw--what shows, this is pretty much the sensation--horse's head bobbing--in real time u get a more extended view of neck and head--eyes ahead and down calculating where the on the track the hoofs are striking with occasional glances down the race track calculating how far u r to the turn or straightaway. In real time peripheral vision is better than the jock cam--and missing is the jarring and concussion felt by the rider with each lead leg hoof strike. All in all these jock cams provide an extremely realistic view of what it is to ride at speed. Good stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkFsj705ziE&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLF21D9CC7EF4BD762

and, the 5 or 6f track at Hastings. I love the 5f tracks since they're easier on the horses in that the horse spends less time on each lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R_k0GJE3Jk

More Rachel Alexandra Stride

First time I closely studied a stride. It's been interesting. Learned a few things. Notice in the first couple of seconds of Rachel's vid, there's Asmussen intently watching at the rail! The speed portion starts at the :47 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ZLZudXKMM

Did Rachel's nice stride have anything to do with her success? We'd think a horse with an efficient stride takes less energy getting around the race track, and, doubtful there's many nicer strides than Rachel.

Freeze framing the Rachel vid coming down the stretch, I was surprised how high Rachel's fronts rise off the ground and also the amount of time that all fours are off the ground. The sensation of bounding is a lot more noticeable and visible on the freeze frames.

The rider has the most control over the head and the head bobs. Watch the head bobbing closely! It looks as if, as front legs travel rear ward the head bobs up. As they thrust forward the head bobs down. Makes sense. The head needs to go down to help thrust the front legs rearward and needs to come up to get them going again frontward. I.E. the head is just ahead of the leg movement. That's what I am seeing. Unknown if I am seeing it exactly correctly.

Any lessons in close observation of Rachel's stride? Maybe this is an idea to strive for. Front end comes way up and forward. There's smoothness and steadiness.

The first thing we need to do to get stride is to develop strength. Discussion on this in later posts. Strength is, of course, a continuing process always in a state of flux depending on the exercise. But once you get there and the horse has got strength then maybe we take a vid of our own horse and study that stride in the manner of studying Rachel's stride. Anything the rider can do to improve our horse's stride?

My take was that other than avoiding error in rider technique there's little the rider does to "improve" the natural stride at max speed. However, remember that indeed there's a lot a rider does that affects stride at the slower speeds!

Watching Rachel we might believe--if there were something the rider could do with bit and reins to get that front end of our horse just a tad higher in the Rachel mold, then we might affect the length, height and efficiency of the bound. As I think about it--this is near impossible at max or near max speed for the reason that the head movement is just too fast and powerful. You try to do anything at speed it's more likely you're interfering with the stride than helping it. Hence, Calvin Borel riding style--sitting chilly, hands absolutely motionless, just staying out of the horse's way.

But! At the slower speeds there's much that can be done to affect stride, and hence, how about this? We work to perfect a nice stride at the slow gallop. We go on to get a nice stride at the two min gallop and so on into the slightly faster speeds--:14s e.g., and then, presumably we get the nice stride at speed were our jock has less control.

In any event, whenever I get on a race horse the stride is always on my mind and, even when it's obvious to me that my riding is having little effect, I am always consciously trying to get the nice stride. Consider thus to ask our rider, Mr. Rider what do you see in my horse's stride. Anything to be done to improve it? Pin head response to such Qs always interesting, to be sure.

Stride Conclusions

Rachel Alexandra exemplifies the importance of stride. Take a look a close look at her coming down the stretch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ZLZudXKMM

Rachel's stride is fluid, athletic, coordinated, head bobbing in sync with rhythm of the bounding. She has in a general sense a highly efficient, effective way of going. And, she's fast. Watch those fractions in her two year old races.

What we see specifically about Rachel's stride, she gets solid forward moving, straight ahead ground strikes with each landing. These perfect ground strikes likely result from a combo a superior shoeing and conformation. And, yes, that farrier taking the extra 10 minutes with each leg (for which we pay her) is getting us a better striding horse. Measuring the toe lengths, angles etc. Rachel gets very decent lift with her rear lead leg causing her front end to lift quite a little bit more than most horses. This extends her stride and combined with her decent size this filly has a very big and bounding stride compared to most.

The combo of what she does, and you're especially struck with the athletic head bobbing, makes Rachel's stride a poster board for "efficiency. Is this just Rachel's natural stride or was it "got" in some way by the training?

Let's first observe that certainly stride is among other things a function of strength. The more effective the training the more closely the horse will come to it's optimal stride. If the trainer knows what they do, then the training in terms of strength gains--and hence stride effectiveness--will be like a snow ball going down hill.

The Q here however, is there any rider contribution to the stride. If you click Rachel's races, watch Calvin Borel. Is there a rider that does less with his hands. Borel's hands are completely motionless and he just get's out of the way of the horse. It was other than Borel that got Rachel's stride although I'd think Borel likely was highly responsible for her training and hence her strength.

My experience--and I've gone through this whole exercise for this--is that the rider does little to improve the stride except to position and move perfectly on the horse, i.e. get out of the way and avoid interference with the horse's way of going. You'd have to show me a rider actually improving stride to make me believe it. Other than that it never happens. In my limited experience I am hardly the final authority. Would be interesting what Chris McCarron or Laffite Pincay might have to say.

Now this is other than to say that a rider is unable to affect the development of stride in a young horse. But this is got again by perfect riding in the Dominic Terry mode. The idea with youngsters is to get them to where they do what their natural ability allows. This sometimes happens slowly in terms of the ride, and then one day the light bulb goes off and whoof, the horse is striding across that field

Once the one natural stride is got, my opinion is that perfectly riding jocks can do little more to improve it. We're at the 4.5f pole with the mythical horse. On around the track next post. Here's Rachel's Woodward. Quite an impressive performance watching it closely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysO_Fhc8Fpw

Stride And Personal Experience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7za5GH86Jik&feature=related

Watch Dominic Terry's hands/rein/bit work. Keep eyes glued on Rachel's reins and mouth all the way around the track,. Repeat this same view with the other horse. What impressions in terms of what these riders do/fail to do in terms of stride?

Fairly obviously the superior rider is Terry. Better balance, better flow, better seat and certainly very superior control of a bobbing weaving spit fire of a horse. Watching the other rider, who, unlike Terry makes zero effort to get the correct lead down the stretch although his horse finally gets the right lead on her own--if the horses for these riders were switched I'd think the other rider on Rachel would keep control instead of lose it. However his control of Rachel likely would be less smooth and a wild but educated guess based on personal experience viewing these types, Rachel likely would be on the wrong lead much of the way around the track with this other rider. This is what one sees in terms of rider selection for our horse.

In terms of rein work several subtle differences between riders. While neck positioning of the hold (of the reins) on the neck is similar Terry has the superior rein to mouth contact, Terry keeps the reins appropriately snug whereas the other rider's reins contain slight slack.

Does anything show as to what these riders may be doing to get the stride differences that show in the vid? Or, is there anything that fails to show--e.g. what the riders may be doing with their fingers and hands on the reins--that affect stride--is the Jock braggadocio that "it's all in my hands" or "I have soft hands" does this make any difference at near max speed?

My view is that certainly nothing shows that these riders are doing that affects stride other than that, as good riding requires, they each try to avoid interfering with the horse's natural stride by sitting chilly over the center of gravity with slight body motion in rhythm with propulsion of the horse. There's nothing that shows in terms of rein motion or hand motion for either rider that would indicate Iver's "rounding on the bit" or any other method that would improve or accelerate the strides.

Of course what does show is Terry for much of the breeze has Rachel under restraint. Early after the work begins Terry's main rein work is to just keep her going straight. Query whether with these "other" functions, that any "rounding on the bit" or other rein/bit work to get stride efficiency is even possible? My thinking is that at near max speed in terms of improving the stride (again, technically and conformationally is this even possible--I'd posted there's only one max speed stride for the horse instead of several with some more efficient than others) there's little being done by the jocks in a positive sense although in a negative avoidance sense certainly they're avoiding getting in the way of the stride.

2011 is my 12th year getting on horses and with certain horses I've done a fair amount of riding on track though never on 4 or 5 per morning. I always to this day mount up with the idea of "stride efficiency" and what I might do to improve it. I have this "ideal" of the horse's max speed stride where the horse is powerfully pushing up and forward propelling its body into max bound style all the way around the track. That's what I'd try to get when I am up if possible.

Never ever have accomplished this or anything close. Not even one single time, although the idea is always in my head. The practical reality when you're up at speed is that you are only trying to hang on, go with the horse's stride remaining yourself unobtrusive as possible to this process. The bit is going back and forth so fast that I'd doubt its even possible to do anything in terms of bit work that would affect stride style (if affecting stride style is possible).

When you're up at speed there's that moment especially after the lead change into the final turn where the horse is picking it up and striding as nicely as it does and as rider I go with this and sometimes delude myself into thinking my "technique" is helping the horse get this stride when in fact what occurs is that the horse commences this on its own and myself the rider is just trying to stay in tune with the stride as is.

My personal conclusion on stride efficiency at speed based on personal experience, observation of the Rachel and BC 2010 vid, and also thinking through horse conformation and how this affects and limits stride--there's very little the rider does except to ride correctly and ideally. A few final thoughts on stride next post and then the mythical horse continues its journey around the race track.

Rider Role In Stride Efficiency At Speed.

Some posts ago I'd worried about inadequately gripping race plates on turf as one indicator of questionable trainer. You can look at the horse and tell, provided u know what to look for. And then this. they do slip and fall on turf without the right plates:
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/66470/chavez-to-miss-five-months-due-to-injuries

The 3/2/10 Rachel video gives an excellent view of Rachel and Asmussen's superb exercise rider, ex jock Dominic Terry and Terry's technique. Is he doing anything in terms of stride efficiency since Rachel's stride is so obviously superior to the other horse? In fact, viewing that other horse, interesting what if anything might be done to improve her very flat stride. Watch the vid in terms of what the riders might be doing to affect the horses' strides:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7za5GH86Jik&feature=related

If you're like me, and strictly closely watching this from the ground, I am unable to see anything that visibly shows that either rider is doing in terms of stride efficiency. I do notice that D. Terry is a perfect rider sitting chilly directly over the center of gravity, displaying rider body lean and arm action that perfectly goes with the stride of the horse whereas the other rider is a little heavy preventing full lift of horse's rear end, and he sits a little in front of center of gravity. Certainly questionable riding techniques can unbalance the horse. But is there anything the perfect rider does in a positive contributory sense that affects (improves) stride efficiency?

The round about explanation goes back to the last posts on the mechanics of the stride at speed. Certainly at the slower speed there are numerous rider techniques affecting the stride. At max speed, however, my take, and I get this closely watching my horses at speed, there's only "one" style without any other styles being possible, when the horse's lead rear is pistoning back and forth as fast as possible along the axis of the hip. The horse is without a "more efficient style of this" and therefore there's nothing really that the rider can do to affect this max speed stride except to use all the correct riding techniques of which D. Terry is a superb e.g.

Does then the jock playing around with the bit affect the lift or bob of the horse's head to get more efficient bounding action and body propulsion as the front legs thrust forward? Are there different more or less efficient ways of this for this horse?

Again, at slower speeds there are noticeable variances of front leg and body propulsion depending on rider techniques. At slower speeds it's possible by technique to "lift" both the front and back ends of the horse. This is likely where Tom Ivers got the dressage term "rounding on the bit".

At max speed or near max speed however, I am fairly convinced that the sole emphasis is on max turnover rate, and that when the legs are churning as fast as muscle contraction permits, there's very little positive the rider can do to make this more efficient, although there's plenty in a negative sense that many riders do to interfere with this.

So the Q--the jock that comes up to me and brags that "its all in the hands" and he has superior hands--- of course. Is this true--is there anything going on with hands/rein/bit that affect stride efficiency? Think I've already answered, but elaborate, next post.

Stride Efficiency From The Rider's Viewpoint

Mechanics of the stride at speed succinctly hints at answer to Q: what, if anything, can the rider do that will positively affect the horse's stride?

Last post noted rear lead leg action at max speed. Watching, this action is merely back and forth fast as possible. Consider the horse, any animal, any human, your self--motoring as fast as possible. Is there really any efficiency involved in that sort leg action?

Again, the blogger is other than an expert in the kinesiology of horse or human motion. Nor have I particularly studied this. We know with human sprinters there are correct and incorrect ways of running. Things such as correct body lean, knee lift, leg churning, arm action, and so on. There's an ideal there that the casual observer of track and field events is aware.

With horses and other four legged creatures I'd think max speed efficiency is a little different. My take would be that at max speed each horse has a certain style based on weight and conformation, and that when this horse is motoring it's legs as fast as physically possible there's really only one way for the horse to go--i.e. instead of 5 different styles of running at max speed with each of the separate styles more or less efficient than the next, my observation is that at max speed/max leg churning that each horse has only one style, and this single style controlled by the horse's conformation, weight and body distribution would be that horse's optimal efficiency style by default.

Put another way, for four legged creatures, exerting max effort only one thing "can" happen which is that animal is going to be propelled along forward by their rear leg action--and while for the bobcat or the jaguar there might be some "more efficient" style of this--with the much heavier bigger horse efficiency is limited by weight! i.e. the horse is so heavy that at max speed/max leg churning only one stride style is possible with some slight variation perhaps depending on the head bob--the stronger the horse gets by conditioning the less necessary is deep head bobbing.

If then only one stride style is possible for this horse at max speed, what is it that the rider may do to affect the stride? My own riding experience on this, next post.

Jocks and Stride Efficiency (Edited)

Faust:
"Too rashly bid, too swiftly done.
What wanders here of shadows sprung?"

Posted last in too big a hurry. Delete. The edit:

What is stride efficiency?
Can the rider do anything to improve stride efficiency?

Stride efficiency" would involve optimal stride. Moving horse's large heavy body through space at max possible speed utilizing minimum possible energy.

Here's the catch however. To have "optimal" stride do u also have to have "less than optimal" stride? Does the horse ever really travel at less than its optimal stride? When Tom Ivers promoted "rounding on the bit" to get a stride on a horse dressage style, did Ivers in fact know of what he spoke? Come back to that.

I viewed my horse yest. morning full in a full speed pasture romp with an eye to stride efficiency, methodology of the 4 legged heavy creature motoring up to full speed. Make this disclaimer--I've viewed striding curiously over a number of years but have never made a study. Thus what follows is a little ad hoc and speculative. Open to discussion.

Stride styles change with speed. At the slower speeds rear lead leg function seems to be to lift the horse's back end of the ground with a slight push forward. At speed these same mechanics involve powerful forward propulsion that creates a momentum or inertia so there's less emphasis on the upward thrust and more on the forward. Front legs--as speed increases at some point there's a change in style from ground flicking to variations of ground pounding. Only the most expert bounders are able do anything resembling ground flicking at speed. The transition from flicking seems to start at around the :14 sec/f rate for most horses.

The interesting thing here is the action of the rear lead leg at speed. While at the slower speeds there's a visible style to rear leg action--you can identify superior striding horses at slower speeds--I had one named Windy Lea that had that nice classic easily noticeable and beautiful galloping stride--. At max speed however, all the rear leg is doing is swinging back and forth along the axis of the hip as fast as possible. It's more the action of a piston than any sort of grace or style.

As the rear leg hits the ground there is an upward forward thrust into the horse's bound that allows the front legs to stretch a certain distance. I suspect that the length of the front leg stretch, instead of being governed by the force of rear leg thrust, is likely more governed by the weight of the horse. Lighter horses can have a bounding type stride. If you watch the ground pounders (instead of bounders), have u ever seen a light weight pounder. The pounders tend to be heavy horses, particularly on the rear end, and I think they are pounders because they are too heavy for the rear leg thrust to lift them off the ground high enough to permit a full forward thrust. Thus, the pounder rear leg action is mostly back and forth as fast as possible whereas bounder action creates more visible upward thrust along with the forward thrust.

The moral of this story is that if the jock is going to affect the striding action and create an optimal stride what is he going to do in terms of this leg action described above. And, putting the Q another way, is there any such thing as an optimal stride?