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.