Training thoroughbred horses Paul R Earl Facultad de Ciencias Biol

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Training thoroughbred horsesPaul R
EarlFacultad de Ciencias BiológicasUniversidad
Autónoma de Nuevo LeónSan Nicolás, NL 66450,
Mexico
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What is wanted ?"There's a lot of heat in this
horse's legs, Mr Fitz." "They all have to go the
same way, son."What this means is that
thousands of horses have been sacrificed to get
one champion like Eclipse, Man o' War, Gallant
Fox, Whirlaway, Citation, Native Dancer or
Secretariat.Millionaires can pay the price of
getting a real champion.The small man might
have nothing but trouble training horses in this
hazardous world.
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What is wanted is a stake winner that can
outdistance (eclipse) his rivals. The horses
mentioned all trained themselves! They were SO
SUPERIOR to their competitors that they eclipsed
them without injury. They all had emerged from
their 2-year old racing debute still in one
piece. The cost of a champion is trivial to its
multimillionaire owner. Next the retired champion
makes millions at stud. The real target for
training is the early 2-year-old that is
developing as an athlete. The older horses are
less flexible and require less attention. They
need to be kept both fit and sound. Which races
they are entered in profitably depends most on
the trainer finding the "right" race in the
condition book. Example "For mares fillies 3
years old and up . . ."
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A very small number of sound horses survive
training designed for selecting stake winners.
Secretariat eclipsed his field by 31 lengths in
the 1973 Belmont Stakes. This means that speed
and distance could not injure him since he had
such powerful reserves. It also means that
training methods A, B C all work! He only lost
races when he was pulled.Regardless, you can
train horses as individuals and purposefully
avoid injuries. Will knowing the heart rate (HR)
per speed per distance help you ? Yes! The
yearly cost of lameness in the US ranges to 1
billion. Something" is wrong !
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Heart rate (40-260 HR) monitoring, and the use of
a high speed threadmill are examples of new
technical additions to horse racing. They are
complementary rather than essential. The
treadmill cannot take high speed sprints.Any
horse working 3/8ths of a mile wide open might
predict its next race. Now the distance by 200 HR
(the V200 test) can be found as additionally
informative, using a sensor-transmittor belt
around the horse in front of the saddle.
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The components of a huge worldwide industryThe
sport of kings, movie stars and crooks consists
of investment money, state taxes and the track's
take of perhaps 12 per race, losses by bucked
shins, bowed tendons, sprained fetlocks and other
lamenesses like navicular disease, winnings at
the races, insurance payments, great auctions and
fabulous stud fees, aside from labor including
the trainers, jockeys, grooms and vets,
maintenance cost, feed and transportation.
Insurance premiums are 2-7 annualy. The cost of
administration, taxes and sales round out the
picture.
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The ONLY cure for real lameness is rest--3 months
or more on the farm. It takes 90 days to leg up a
horse. How the 2-year-old is made fit to race,
and how his bones are modeled for speed is the
major proposition. Finally, the cause of lameness
is overtraining by the horse trainer.Obviously,
the 2 other main components are the private farm
and the private track as the supplier of
2-year-olds. However, many owners do not have
their own farms and are not members of the horses
set or the sniffing set. Many of them need a
patron.
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Another answer of many questions is racing too
young as 2-year-olds. Everybody knows this.
Holding them till 3 is terribly expensive !
Another expense is bucked shins. The next
complaint is bowed tendons also from too fast too
young and can involve sprained fetlocks.
Regardless, if 2-year-olds are not exercised
ENOUGH!, they will develop less muscle and less
combative stiff bone. The collision between the
muscle and the bone system is rather obvious. The
gains in muscle strength are not matched by gains
in bone when speed and distance are
increasing.IS THERE TOO LITTLE OR TOO MUCH
TRAINING SPEED? IS IT BETTER TO SHORTEN THE
DISTANCE THAN LOWER THE SPEED? YES.
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Sprints are OKBones generate electric
potentials in response to mechanical stress.
Wolff's law affirms that bone adapts its
structures to meet stress in the best possible
way.High speed is this stimulus.In 1892,
Julius Wolff suggested this law that states that
bone tissue can adapt optimally to the mechanical
load to which it is exposed. This is often called
remodeling. The optimum has mimum mass/maximum
stiffness.Sprints are OK! Let the horse have
his head once in a while. Lighten up by
shortening the distance not always the speed.
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Anatomical points Is a horse equal to his
forelegs ? It is tempting to say Yes ! He is
standing on his middle fingers. Two other fingers
of the most distant paleontologic past are the 2
splint bones on the cannon bone. What do you need
to know ? See the drawing of the cannon bone
(Metacarpal III) hoof. Does the extensor tendon
move right over the cannon bone?Most
racetrackers do not know ANY anatomy. Then,
communication with the veterinarian is most
problematic.
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Claiming Obviously, the combination of a hard
dirt track surface, lameness, extreme youth and
high speed breaks down many horses. All the lame
horses of millionaires go to the claimers
(1,000-100,000 or more) just as horses move from
Belmont Park, NY to some track few people ever
heard of. Most horses spend their lives in the
claimers. Geldings have no place to go.
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Did the small trainer ever improve his claimer
just by letting up on it ? YES ! Everybody knows
this! Much of the time, Seabiscuit was too sore
to run well and never had a painkiller. Try to
understand reluctance to run. Perhaps you don't
!Anyone who puts his horse to claim feels the
price is a profit over that horse's condition.
The groom gets back to the barn with an empty
halter, and a problem has been solved. Next time
out, that horse may be trying very hard for the
bew owner on legal painkilling bute
(phenylbutazone). These castoffs are the
necessary support for the racing industry.
Is this castoff going to breakdown or - When ?
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JockeysExcept for veterinarians, the last major
component is the jockey. The trainer says, "Why
would I ride you back? You pulled that horse last
week." "Yes, I know I did. But let me ride him
back. I think I can win!" The last resort for a
jockey is to jump off the horse.Say a horse is
pulled several times and then gets into a lower
claimer. The jockey's friends claim it. You know
the rest ! The best view of hankypanky in a race
shows when the horses fan out after the quarter
pole. Binoculars are helpful. Note also that any
jockey should give racing room, don't you think
?
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VetsGetting along with folkloric trainers is
1. Practice from influenza on is not of interest
here. High interest is focused on the
experimental method that contains controls. In
racing, many conditions always change. What is a
baseline? Of course, horses can act as their own
controls, but intuition is the winner.Finding
out what applies best via ANOVA (analysis of
variance) or other statistics is only some 20
years old for most horse problems. What variables
(parameters) have the lowest variance? Sports
medicine is quite behind what its assets are.
Research is in its infancy.
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A guide for the V200 testA trot (jog) at about
250 m/min or 48 s/f produces a HR of about 90
bpmA canter at about 400 m/min or 30 s per
furlong produces a pulse of about 125 bpmA
canter at 460 m/min or 26 s per furlong produces
a HR of 135 bpmA slow gallop at about 550 m/min
or 22 s/f produces a HR of approximately 155 bpm,
andA slow to fast gallop at about 660 m/min or
18 s/f gives a HR of 180 bpm
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What does it mean--to rub a horse ?"Do you know
how to rub a horse?" "Yes, sir." "Go on in the
barn and tell Sweeney I told you to tell him to
give you the pony to take care of."To massage a
horse's forelegs is to rub a horse. Probably with
linament like Bigeloil. It is a
counterirritant having thymol, menthol, methyl
salicylate, capsicum, salicylic acid 0.65 , oils
of juniper and pine, and alcohol 75 . Absorbine
and others are also used, of course. Massage in
some form dominates the racetrack.Hosing with
tap water through to painkillers fit in here. The
cause of pain is overtraining. Hosing is an
important part of the folklore.
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Metabolism and HR testsHow much oxygen
passes through the muscles to gain a given racing
distance at a certain speed?We can figure this
out using simple Newtonian mechanics.What do we
have? We have primarily-Heart rate (HR,
pulse)-Percent of saturation of arterial blood
with oxygen-Blood pressure
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The cardiovascular vs
the skeletal systemWe are talking about 2 very
different systems 1) the cardiovascular (CV)
system and 2) the bones and ligaments of the
forelegs. Gain by exercise in the CV system can
be more than lost in the legs by injuries. The
guide is speed, not distance. However, a few
works will not gain much muscle.A few expert
jockeys can time a work such as a mile in 2 min.
What is V200? It is a distance likely in meters
when the pulse HR is 200/min.
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What are the common track measurements?The US
racetrack is about the last fortress in the world
for the English system of measurement. A furlong
is 1/8th of a mile. It is still the basic unit in
the states. Then horses run 11, 12, 13 or more
s/f.
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AVOID INJURIESBUCKED SHINS Dorsal
metacarpal diseaseBucked shins are a very
common cause of forelimb lameness in young
horses. Most young racehorses develop shin
soreness. If not properly treated, bucked shins
may lead to stress fractures. The cause of bucked
shins is too much work too fast or in other
words, THE HORSE TRAINER is the cause.
Usually, the bone is quickly remodeling by the
stresses of training. Remodeling has its
attractions, but the bone can weaken via
microfractures. Let up on the horse.
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Treatment is palliative, having of cold therapy
(hosing with tap water usually) and using the
painkiller phenylbutazone--bute. Reduce the work
load. Pain killers are obviously beneficial.
Example phenylbutazone lets sore horses race.
In some US states any medication may be illegal
since it allows MORE damage to the horse. Stress
fractures are repaired by either surgically
drilling holes around the fracture that act as
conduits that supply healing factors
(osteostixis) or by inserting a screw across the
fracture plane. Healing requires 90-120
days.Almost everything that is tried for bucked
shins through to antique pinfiring attempts to
increase the circulation, and also often involves
reducing pain.
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Tendonitis and ligament injuriesIf a tendon is
lacerated, the healing tendon will be strong
enough to bear weight at a walk in 6-8 weeks.
Bowed tendons or suspensory ligament injuries
require 6-12 months to heal. Treatment is
palliative including reducing pain with
phenylbutazone. Sprained fetlocks usually involve
the ligaments.Complete recovery of tendonitis
is most unlikely and half of these will bow
again. Speed may eventually destroy the
profitable bowed horse running in the claimers.
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Osteochondrosis (OCD)Signs include
swollen joints, lameness and progressively
developing upright conformation. Diagnosis is
confirmed with radiography of the affected
joints. The most common areas affected are hock,
stifle, fetlocks, shoulder, carpus, cervical
vertebrae, elbow and pastern. Rapid growth of
the foal coupled with imbalances in the diet are
the primary set of causative factors. Promoting
fast growth by feeding high levels of energy
seems related to OCD. Most forms of OCD are
responsive to surgical treatment in young horses.
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What are some treatments for pain in horses?Drug
classes are followed by examples of specific drug
names in parentheses. Acute pain treatments
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs or NSAIDs
(Bute phenylbutazone, Banamine, Ketofen)
Steroids (dexamethasone, prednisilone) Local
anesthetics (lidocaine, bupivicaine) Opiates
and their derivatives (morphine, Torbugesic,
fentanyl) Alpha-2 agonists (Rompun, detomidine)
Dissociatives (ketamine) Shockwave therapy
Injectable joint protectants (Legend, Adequan)
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TRAINING PROGRAMSThe new 2-year-old
is exposed to a graduallyincreasing excercise
program. Are its bones adapting to the stresses
it will live under ?Is the treadmill necessary ?
Certainly not. It is still an experimental
tool.Is the velocity at 200 HB test necessary,
say once a month ? No, but it is extremely
helpful with 2 3 year olds. Can the excercise
boy breeze a given distance at 200 HB rather than
control a work at a given number of seconds? How
does HB convert to meters/s or s/furlong ? By f,
seconds are 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 s.
The last is just a fast gallow. For a mile, this
is 2 24 min which is 144 s.
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There are many approaches to the same end result.
Programs are quite different in Japan, Australia,
England and the USA. Here the suggestions on
training are just suggestions since different
approaches can apparently produce an equivalent
result!A training program could have a 2-mile
(3.2 km) gallop at 18 f/s 11.2 m/s daily. The
horse might breeze at 14.4 f/s once every 7-10
days increasing the distance to 6 f 1.2 km.
Should you start with a 1 mile gallop ?Note
that horses should be jogged 3-5 minutes to warm
up before breezes, and especially before races.
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A program is now suggested. The
main point is that the work load increases as
the horse ages to race perhaps in May.New
horses are broken to ride in the fall and can
gallop a mile at 1820 s/f by the end of
December. The training program is 6 days a week
with Sundays off. V200 HB tests can be made
before and after any training routine. Teaching
horses to use the gates starts early. As simple
as A, B, C.
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What can you learn from this lecture ?-
Understanding the cause of injuries will help you
prevent them- Training programs must fit each
horse- Proper shoeing and footing are
critical- Bone can remodel in response to the
stress of a given training program. SPEED must be
accomodated!- Excercise as correct, too much,
too little or the wrong kind finalizes as some
amount of SPEED. SPEED is the name of the game-
While positive training is evinced as a gain by
muscle increases like heart size, bone
misfunctions may register losses as in soreness
or worse.