Early Training (was Ex-Racehorses off the track)

[Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>]

Lif wrote:
>> I'm talking strictly physiology here.  Is AERC off base about the
stress of endurance, or is track racing not that stressful (in spite of
bowed tendons, stress fractures and all those "normal" injuries to track 
horses)?  Is the concept of LSD for endurance horses just a bunch of
hooey when it comes down to it?  No one is going to convince me that track
horse training and the LSD concept are even remotely the same.>>>

Well, they are, and they're not...

All athletic horses need a certain amount of LSD (three to six months)
to develop a foundation of hard-tissue strength. Bone responds directly
to the stresses applied (Wolf's Law). The earlier you start, the greater
the potential for adaptation and maximizing the strength of hard and
soft tissues (bone, ligament, tendon, fascia, etc.). So it's not so much
*when* you start, it's *how* you start and how mindfully you progress.

Permit me to quote from "SportScience I," published by EQUUS when it was
Fleet Street...on which Matthew Mackay-Smith, DVM, was Medical Editor,
Tom Ivers was Technical Editor, and I was Project Editor.

"The amount and rate of the passive tissues' response to training
diminish with maturity...So the earlier you begin to exercise your horse
at slow speeds, over increasing distances, the more durability you can
build in. This strategy gives you a double order of training benefit for
your time and effort."

And...

"The younger you start your horse and the longer you extend the long
slow distance (LSD) phase of his conditioning, the more you will
maximize his bone mass and strength, the quality and competence of his
tendons and ligaments and the thickness of his joints."

Of course, the earlier you start, the more diligently attentive you
must be to the signs of impending overwork, because the potential for permanent
damage (as noted by Susan G.) is also greater. (Signs of overtraining
include heat or swelling in the ankles; shortened gait; loss of body
weight; dull, "staring" coat; loss of appetite; loss of enthusiasm for
work. Signs of developing fitness include increased voluntary exercise;
enthusiastic attitude; shiny, "blooming" coat; big appetite.)

At the same time, remember that "The physical effects, whether good or
bad, of any training program do not show up for two to four days after
you have increased the work or conducted a high-demand exercise."

"Early" training doesn't have to mean riding. It can include running
your weanlings in large, hilly pastures, ponying your yearlings or
driving your two-year-olds. Matthew always said: "Do a little bit more
tomorrow than you did today."

Most racehorses are started without adequate preparation and then
"raced" into
condition. The lucky few survive this process; most see their durability
undermined and careers shortened. As much damage, if not more, is
wrought by undertraining as overtraining. Poor training can break down a
horse at any age; progressively training the young horse can actually
maximize the possibility of long-term soundness.

While a judiciously planned early-training program can build in
stuctural strength, it is less clear to me how the vertebrae will fare
under an early training regime. The spinal processes do not fuse and
close until about five years, sometimes later. Most racehorses are
ridden by relatively lightweight people who basically stay off their
backs (their balance and hands are often another matter; let's not go
there :) ); endurance horses often carry significantly more weight of
variable balance. Perhaps it's the stress to the back that is the
undoing of the early-ridden endurance horse rather than the legs. (Back
pain often results in lameness as the horse compensates.)

I don't think AERC is off base on its age requirements at all, when one
takes into consideration the long "lead time" necesary for laying down
the horse's initial base of fitness. But a relatively late performance
start does not mean we can just forget about the horse until then. Doing
nothing until the horse is thought to be "mature" does him no favor. He
must still go through the same phases of building hard- and soft-tissue
integrity, and may be just as vulnerable to injury--especially if the
trainer thinks all risk is now behind him.

Bobbie L.
Orange County, Calif.

p.s. Many other factors affect soundness, including conformation,
nutrition, shoeing and genetics...but that's a whole 'nuther story or
two. :)