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[RC] Exercise/growth - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: ti tivers@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== Tom, Does this mean that exercising a young horse is better at building bone than manipulating his protein or calcium intakes? Is this a response to Barb who had questions about epiphysitis? Another question, how much exercise can a young horse tolerate before he breaks down? I have a 2 1/2 year old filly I want to bring along for endurance. I keep my horses at a stable where they have a 12x12 stall with a 12x24 run off the back. This doesn?t give her any room for exercise on her own. Sometimes I bring my filly along for trail rides and pony her. She?s done 8 mile rides with us this way. Is this safe for me to be doing with her? Will it help her build bone to be doing this? How will I know how much trail riding is too much for her? Linda> This is not a reply to anybody's post, but simply a scientific paper. In re your question, I have participated in two longterm studies exercising horses as early as weanlings. In one study a large group of TBs and QHs weanlings and yearlings were force-exercised via chasing them around a large paddock with a pony horse. The resident vet did daily examinations on each before the horse exercised and I operated the NIBBS system bone density analyzer. In this study, forced exercise was applied every day. The babies quickly learned to anticipate the"fun" and didn't need to be "driven" after a few days of the protocol--they raced the pony horse. And then they raced each other all afternoon. However, a month into this process, many of the babies started popping splints. In all, bone density was dropping toward what we considered a critical 20% decrement. There were some epiphysitis cases, but those were taken out of the protocol until it subsided. We stopped that protocol and went into something different: more controlled ponying exercise on a two weeks on, two weeks off protocol. No further problems were observed. By the time the saddles were put on these 60+ head, at the end of their yearling year, their bone densities were as high as those of the aged mares at the facility--which heretofore had had the highest bone densities, including racing horses and horses in full training. In another study of perhaps 30 TBs, Weanlings were gradually introduced to high speed treadmill exercise, two weeks on, two weeks off, culminating in 4 daily galloping miles at a speed 25% slower than adult horses performed their daily treadmill mileage. They were monitored via infrared thermography and periodic vet checks. If increased temperature was seen in the joints, the workload was reduced, but never stopped completely. There were no clinical cases of joint problems, but all were fed daily joint powder and a normal ration. These animals, some under conventional training, others under interval training, all proved to be sounder during those processes than horses that had not been preconditioned. Young horses are at their most "plastic" during growth and it is my opinion that a very careful protocol of progressivly loaded, absolutely controlled, exercise can shape them to better face the challenges of race training and racing. In the first situation, the babies were a "handful" to break. In the second, the animals were "pros" before a saddle was ever introduced. ti =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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