New Year's Eve on 12/31/06

A few birthday's to celebrate at midnight! Happy New Year to All!

12/31/06 Rest.

They Hang Dictators, Don't They?

This is a horse racing blog, but occasionally I'll veer off. I've followed the situation in the Middle East only at a glance--hey, I train horses--but, in considering the events of the past 48 hours i'm reminded of that quote from Goethe's Faust that "something wrong was all about it". Yes, dictators are executed quite regularly, but, I had thought things different for this buffoon clownlike figure, caricature of himself, and an obviously completely broken man. Guess I was wrong. I'm upset this sorry affair besmerched the passing of Gerald Ford, and, George Bush fell just a little farther in my esteem by failing to step in and stop this hideous exercise, a bold imaginative step that might have helped united that country and stop their war. I can recall when Hussein was a friend of the USA and a counterveil to the Ayetollas in Iran. Little talk here from Biden and Kennedy of atrocities in those days. Whatever the man was, i liked the way he went. I feel sure if there is a hell he might have yet the last word with those executioners who'll be right there along with him.

The Rest of the Country

I've posted the old hard training, P. Burch et. al, and present training in Southern Cal. What about east of the Rockies?

In my old handicapping days of too long ago i noticed on the east coast breezing was inconsistent (few apparent plans or patterns in the Form), and also infrequent. One breeze in three weeks sort of seemed the deal. One presumes these east coast trainers gallop at least every other day.

I'd say it's similar in Florida, KY and Chicago.

In the Midwest, where I am, breezing decreases to almost non-existent, and galloping--let's give an example of a three week period--the horse might see the track four times for gallop, maybe pony a couple of times, and the rest of the time it's an hour a day on the walker and a race thrown in--a minimal level of fitness.

What accounts for the softer training in the rest of the country compared to CA?

My theory is that the Los Angeles trainers discovered quickly that to compete with Charlie Wittingham and his imitators you need a fit horse. Since we where without Wittinghams east of the Rockies, I querry that the prior old timey hard training of Hirsch, Burch, Fitzimmons transitioned (was Woody Stephens the father of this) to even softer training than on the west coast.

We have that infamous quote by K. McGlaughlin to explain this--why breeze every three days when every three weeks will do--it's something like that--see my Lukas post. And so it goes.

I've observed since I bought my first horse in 1986 that of late, the last few years, trainers in our area are giving their horses more track work than they used to. I see more horses galloping on the track these days, and breezing. Suspect this too is a response to competition. If you have ten horses in a race doing nothing in their training, one of them has to win. But, if you consistently have one or two that are doing some work, the advantage will tell, and some of our brighter trainers seem to catch on. Maybe it's some of the new one's, Pletcher, O'Neill, McGlaughlin, Dickinson, that are moving the pile.

Additionally, you have east of the Rockies the Baffert phenomenon of ratcheting up training for good horses for certain races. This is exemplified in Carl Nafzger's good book "Traits of a Winner" on his training of Unbridled. It's definitely conventional training in that book, somewhat of the Lukas mold, but, Nafzger refers to two mile gallops and longer (albeit slow), more frequent breezes for Unbridled which Nafzger considers too tough for lesser horses. The galloping is every other day, and there's fretting about doing too much.

One may presume that Mott, McGaughey, M. Miller, S. Hine and his Skipaway, Zito, all go through similar exercises with good horses, while the rest of their stables sit and rot. Easy Goer finally beat Sunday Silence undoubtedly because he was trained harder closer to the Belmont.

And so, I'm at last on this blog done with identifying conventional training as we now have it.

Lukas is a good model of what is done--see my Lukas posts--because everything else is a derivation either somewhat tougher or somewhat softer. Now, it's time for commentary and what all this means for our new yearling Y on the coming posts.
Y's training:
Thurs. 12/28/06: 7 n riderless with short 2m lick bursts.
Fri. 12/29/06: 6 x 3f riderless with some short 2m lick bursts and one 1/2f lick at 90% speed.
Sat. 12/30/06: Rest there was work under tack on all three days--a little walking on Fri.

A Word About Baffert, Frankel, and Dirt Road to the Derby

We'd be remiss to generalize about West Coast training without mentioning Baffert and Frankel.

As everyone else, I've watched Baffert come up and drew a few conclusions about what he does. But, what I really know these days about Baffert comes from his book "Dirt Road to the Derby."

The book left a lasting impression as I still wonder what a fellow whose family keeps chickens in little cages for their eggs is doing training animals. Leave that one to PETA for now.

For those who have yet to read the book, it is the story of Baffert's path, the smoozing with Pegram, socializing, money spending, but good family man , with an occasional horse story thrown in.

While the Book is devoid enough of the horse side of the Baffert tale to the point one wonders if this guy ever goes to the barn, Baffert throws in just enough accounts and anecdotes of specific horses and races that what comes across is that Baffert ratchets up his training for big races. There is mention, e.g. of two mile gallops for Silver Charm and faster more tightly spaced breezes prior to a couple of big races, and the trainer sweating bullets wondering if he'd done enough.

When you combine the above with that unbelievable list of Baffert stakes winners listed at the end of the book--horse after horse for a 20+ year period--we may conclude to take this trainer seriously for any big race. Probably, Baffert coasts along normally in similar manner to Lucas with less sports IQ, but, Baffert has just enough intuitive sense of physiology to understand he must work a horse for a big race. RR is unsure that Lukas has that same sense. There is a difference between sports IQ and understanding exercise physiology.

Bobby Frankel in my handicapping days was my favorite trainer. There was in the 1980s nothing more consistent than betting on a Frankel horse. If you read the Hollywood/Santa Anita Section of the Form, there were in that time only two or three trainers in the country who consistently breezed their horses. The names were Stute, Wittingham and Frankel. I know this about Frankel, though he seems to be getting lazy lately: once a week like clockwork all Frankel horses breeze 4f usually at :48 or faster. Presumably such a trainer would gallop his horses regularly, and as such, against the rest of the training ilk, Frankel always had the fittest if not the fastest horse except against Wittingham or Stute. Always sure to be "in themoney"! Duh...let's see, Frankel breezes faster and more often. I'm trusting the reader to see the correlation.

Now, on to the real subject of the day, today's training of Y.

Wed. 12/27/06: 10 min light riderless trot-gallop. bellied.

Thurs. 12/28/06: 7 min. riderless gallop with some 2m lick bursts, aborted due to shoulder kick. Then, under tack horse refused to move.

Fri. 12/29/06: We were to rest today till i found out Lake Okachobee would fall on us the next two days. Continuous rain from this evening to Sunday Afternoon. Fast twitch work required. Then we can survive without too much damage two or three days off.

1. After warm up, 6 riderless 3f heats at snappy gallop with two or three 2mlick bursts thrown in. Next to last heat 1/2f at 85% speed. Last heat was 1.5f with 1/2f at near max speed--that's the fast twitch.

2. Then, sixth day under tack--try to coax horse into walking today. Remind reader that we did zero ground work with this horse prior to mounting. Horse is neither bridle or bitwise and I'm teaching him rider aids while on. For those that waste time with ground work consider the following--and this is other than to say that ground work is without benefits, I'm simply saying it's unnecessary. Mounting block was placed 60 feet from other horses eating alfalfa cubes off ground. Y was placed by the mounting block pointed in direction of his buddies. I got on at the belly, tapped him hard with the whip and he spurted toward his friend. When we got there I got off. We repeated at the belly. Third time I got on and tapped him. This time he veers off to the right drifting toward rubbing me off on a fence post. I jumped off. On the second try we walked straight to the herd. Three more times, and voila, we're walking under tack. A historic day!

Browser Problems

It seems, my Lukas posts are appearing on Internet Explorer but failing to appear on Firefox. Video on Firefox can be tricky. Till I'm able to figure it out, guess you need IE for this blog.

How Does Lukas Train?

Lukas trained Steinlen at left. They bred this great horse to 100 mares. What's with that? See 30 days of Steinlen training near end of this post.

How Lukas trained in the late 1980s Ross Staaden covers comprehensively in his book. There are training charts for the month of June for every horse in the Hollywood Park stable, as well as discussions with Lukas, assistant trainers, vets, exercise riders, and various observers of Lukas training.

As Staaden notes and Lukas emphasizes, a hallmark of Lukas training is flexibility. While that's hardly news, there is a difference in athletics when adjustments are made by one that has an intuitive instinct for developing athletes, as opposed to your standard questionably witted athletic trainer. In the hands of someone like Lukas, evaluating a training program day to day means something.

In this regard I've noted Lukas changed things up here and there over the years. When the sort of training covered in the Staaden book was failing to work I noticed Lukas increasing frequency and intensity of breezes. Was it Point Given were Lukas mentioned two mile gallops and more frequent, faster breezes? This transition to harder training (as RR perceived it) in the late '90s and early 2000s correlated with a brief resurgence of success for the Lukas stable. And then, from what I could tell, they reverted to former methods and results since then speak the story.

So, without adieu, the Lukas training as reported by Staaden:

"Gallops--what sort of distance and speed do they go? Kiaren McLaughlin said the gallops are a mile to a mile and a half."

How fast do they gallop on gallop days? Lukas: "an average gallop for us is an eight in eighteen (18 sec/f)...a nice open gallop...it might be twenties or it might even be sixteens."

Breezes: "Even though Wayne's horses don't fast work very often, they still don't go very fast"

At what speed do they work? Lukas: "When you see one of our horses break 48 seconds in half mile, a minute in five furlongs or a 1:14 for six furlongs, it's because of one of three things: The horses is a very exceptional horse, the reins broke, or the exercise rider fell off. The fitness I think you can get without hard works. you can instead put a lot of bottom in them and save them a little bit."

"In your training chart, you seem to fast work them fairly infrequently" Lukas: "I never fast work them. In other words, we don't let our horses work. At five-eights we very seldom break a minute".

Staaden: "I find that amazing." Lukas: "We don't work horses."

How often does Lukas breeze? "We very seldom work under eight days" (Note: the average interval between breezes or races seems to be 9-10 days).

Is there a rationale to this training? Kiaren McLaughlin says it all for these types of trainers: "Why run (work) them every four days if you can get the same result running them every seven days. Why run them 3/4 of a mile when you can get the same result running them a half a mile"

(RR Query--who says you get "the same result"?)

Here is the training chart for Steinlen for the month of June, year unknown. (Important side note: today's Y training follows.)

June 1: W
2: G
3: G
4: J
5: Work 5/8
6: W
7: G
8: J
9: G
10: G
11: W
12: G
13: Work 3/4
14: W
15: J
16: G
17: J
18: G
19: Race 8F Hollywood Stakes
20: W
21: W
22: W
23: J
24: G
25: J
26: G
27: G
28: Work 5/8
29: W
30: G
July 4: Raced 9f Hollywood Stakes

RR might be ok with such a chart on occasion!

Today's Y training:
Tues: 12/26/06 15 min. pasture romp with a few speed bursts
Wed. 12/27/06 10 min easy riderless trot-gallop. bellied.
Thurs. 12/28/06 riderless heats in paddock including several short 2 min lick bursts. Aborted after 7 m as horse is kicked (hard) on point off shoulder. RR is hardly thrilled by this revolting development. Buted. Horse seems to be ok. I've had some horrendous sounding kicks to the shoulder over the years in these paddock gallops. It always sounds and looks way worse than it is. Then, Y is tacked up and ridden, sort of. He again refused to move. Plan would be to walk under tack by Mon.

Lukas and Conventional Training

Prefer this Los Alamitos pic to later ones showing a sartorially challenged Lukas as if he'd just graduated from clothing selection class. I like the man. A few quirks and foibles, to be sure, but, who is RR to cast the first stone. and, hey, RR can relate to former basketball coaches training horses. It happens.
A few querries before launching into my interest in Lukas, which is his training.

Does Lukas use the needle? No, would be the short answer. Can anyone imagine this guy getting satisfaction in winning by cheating?

Does top trainer Lukas make money for his clients? Fair question when you spend 72 mil on yearlings which earn $36 mil at the track in the 1980s. Answer: for most Lukas clients, probably not.

Does Lukas break down a higher percentage of horses? We are without the answer until someone does a statistical analysis. Until that time I'll take the word of Lukas's vets that Lukas injures about the same percentages as his contemporaries.

Now, on to training. In a prior post I wrote that Lukas refused to divulge his training to Ross Staaden for "Winning Trainers". As I read the book again this weekend 15 years after my first read, it actually went down as follows:

Staaden and Lukas entered Lukas's office. Staaden noticed Lukas's training logon the wall and pulled out his telescopic lens to photograph it. Lukas then stated: "Im uncomfortable with you photographing that chart." However, Lukas relented, permitted Staaden to photograph the log, and did discuss with Staaden his training in detail. It's all in the book. Page after page of training logs, and commentary by Lukas, Kiaren McLaughlin, the exercise riders and various observers. We do know almost exactly how Lukas trained in the last 1980s.

I'll get into the specifics in the next post, but first, the important matters of the day, the training of our Y.

Mon. 12/25/06: rest
Tues: 12/26/06: 15 min pasture romp missing one shoe. qualified as some fast work.
Wed. 12/27/06. I asked Nob, for whom I have complete respect, what is it now. We have lost two shoes in four days. Nob commented as I watched him shoe, that the horse just lost this one. It is several things said Nob. He showed me that this right front was also missing on one side significant horn at the quarter and toe, so that only three good nails could be driven. He demonstrated the sponginess of this hoof. But, said Nob, the significant factor here is we're using a cut down size 6 level grip shoe when we should be using a smaller size 5. Additionally, Anvil Co. was out of size 4 Australian nails, and so Nob is using Australian size 4 1/2 nails for this small hoof. Said Nob, the too big nails and too big shoe contribute to instability. I see. It took Nob so long to tack the shoe so it might hold it was too dark to ride. So, we did 10 min of easy riderless trot-gallop in the drying paddock. Will set us up for the coming days...

A Good Man...Gerald Ford 1913-2006

I always remember that shot of Betty and Gerald Ford at Aqueduct in Breeder's Cup II, and Jack Van Berg's wistful look over another second place finish by Gate Dancer. Those were the days! The country might have gone down a different road had Ford won in '76, and that's nothing against another great man, Jimmy Carter.

Over the next few posts I want to continue to look at conventional training and how it impacts my yearling. For Christmas I received a replacement copy of Ross Staaden's "Winning Trainers". I read the original in the early '90s, loaned it out, and never saw it again. The book went out of print for years, but recently resurfaced on Amazon. If you're interested in training, grab one of these last few copies!

I'll do some posts on D.Wayne Lukas, T.J.Smith (the leading trainer in Australia--33 yrs. in a row), and more on Mandella, and how this all fits together in the next few days.

To catch things up, to explain why we rested Sunday I'll have to explain some shoeing. Nob after tacking on the lost front left shoe on Saturday had proffered, as if I wanted to hear it, all his problems attaching the shoe. You may visualize the veil of boredom over my face as Nob continued. It seems that part of the hoof wall on one side was broken so badly poor Nob had nothing on which to nail the two nails at the quarters. To make matters worse, droned Nob, the nail hole at the toe had enlarged so much from loss of shoe that essentially the nail at the toe also was useless. To make a long story short (please do), the shoe is being held on on one side only by nails numbered 4 and 5 at the heels. "If you run him in the mud the shoe will come off."

"Well", I responded to this news, "if the shoe comes off, Nob, you can just tack it right back on."
Nob now looked especially pained, and said, "there is the rub". "If the shoe comes off again, the wall will be so badly damaged I will have to rebuild the hoof wall with Equilox.

"Nob, I'm ok with you having to rebuild the hoof wall with Equilox". "Be glad to pay for your extra time, good buddy".

Now Nob became professorial, almost as if he welcomed this opportunity to recite technical information concerning his enthusiam for this great product Equilox which farriers use as a last resort to repair hoof cracks, replace broken area of hoof walls, or any other time a hoof wall substitue is necessary.

Nob had me read the instructions on the Equilox container: The farrier mixes the material into the consistency of wet clay, applies it to the repair area, shapes it, and then holds up the horses hoof for four minutes while the material sets up and hardens. After hardening the material has the same consistency as the wall. Nails may be driven in and they will hold. I once raced a horse where 26 or 27 of the 32 nails of the four feet where driven into Equilox. Indeed it's a superb product. That horse would not have raced but for Equilox.

"So, what's the problem Nob? We'll go ahead and exercise the horse. If he loses the shoe you can Equilox it back on".

Nob continued his tutorial: "couple of problems with that. 1. In wet weather the hoof is spongy and permeated with moisture so it will take forever to dry it out with acetate. But, here's the big thing. In cold weather the material takes twice as long to set up."

I was beginning to get the drift here as I considered my fidgety young animal. "You mean the yearling would have to hold up his leg eight minutes to let the material harden". "Yup, and that's after I put it on and shape it". Not. Would never happen. "So, you better avoid losing that shoe or you might be without one on that hoof for a while."

I thanked Nob, looked at the paddock and considered for a good long while before I cancelled the work, wisely so, without a doubt. We'll keep that shoe to work another day.

Y's training log:
12/24/06 rest (see above)
12/25/06 rest
12/26/06 15 min pasture romp. Best we could do, it's still very muddy, but ok now in the pasture. The yearling hardly looked too exciting, generally he stayed at the back of the pack just barely staying with the slowest horse. Then I found out why. Now he's lost the front shoe on the right leg. Another interesting Nob explanation to come, without a doubt. A little bellying under tack and we called it a day.

Christmas Day 2006

All horses rest. Merry Christmas!

Duplicating Mandella

Here is Pleasantly Perfect (blinkers) in full drive. The seventeen hand stallion now stands at Lane's End for $30,000.00. PP retired as the leading money winner in throughbred racing history. He's by Pleasant Colony out of an Affirmed mare and was purchased for $725,000.00 at the yearling sales. Trainer: Richard Mandella.

Can we duplicate the training of Pleasantly Perfect? A little Dale Carnegie, if you want to be successful, do what successful people do, as follows:

Horse Care: exceptional instead of creative.
Farrier: Best farrier on the grounds.
Vet: The best vet around.
Leg Wrapping: state of the art.
Riders: Hall of Fame Jocks and experienced light weight exercise riders.
Exercise Prescriptions: estimate-- three days out of seven slow gallops and a breeze of some sort per week. Let's say we'll breeze most but not all weeks with a sequence roughly as follows: 3f :36, 4f :49, 7f: 1:30 finishing up strong. Then three or four days rest. repeat. race.
Intangibles: Lot's of energy, thought, and leadership of the shedrow. Things go on schedule. Trainer broods in his concentration on his horses. Adequately innovate in a conservative sort of way. The training is deliberate instead of "off the cuff".
Problems: Mandella's work produces horse problems and injuries. See the DVD.

Is the above achievable? Am I talking myself into Mandella training? Mandella has an obvious rider advantage. I'm unable to conjure Mike Smith and Alex Solis hustling out of the woodwork to gallop my horses in company. But, perhaps, uuumm...a little organization with fellow trainers, motivate the available jocks, might take an extra penny or too here or there, throw in a horse with a bit of talent, and we might get reasonably close.

And so... given Mandella's success, for the next post: why do anything else?

Today's Y training, we're back in business:
Thurs. 12/21/06: rest
Frid: 12/22/06: rest.
Sat. 12/23/06: 10 min trot-slow gallop riderless work in the muddy paddock. strenghtening only. And then, Day Four under tack. horse today refused to move today. Given the three days off and because I want to avoid landing face down in the mud, I let it go, and we'll try again tomorrow.

Mandella's Exercise Prescriptions

With the best of intentions one day after winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, i left the office at 4 p.m. for the farm to find Y without a left front shoe. Insufficient light to tack it back on before dark.

Horses can run in the mud without shoes, but, experience is that they also bruise their feet running in mud. So, chance a bruise or worse an abscess, or do nothing was the choice today. Decision was nothing, and thus now three days of rest, and the stream of smoke emanating from the RR ears over the weather grows thicker still. Put it in positive spin, more time for those immature cartilages to absorb the training time and develop.

I have already spoken to my farrier, Mr. Nob. I reminded Nob we have lost three shoes in the last three weeks, and that his reputation for never losing shoes in the mud is in serious jeapardy. Nob, had several excuses, of course; everything but that he did a lousy job. He promised he would in the morning ignore the fidgety yearling jumping around all over the place during shoeing and make sure the shoe fit flush this time.

Now, on to Mandella, and his exercise prescriptions. What they are exactly is only a guess. As with any coach, trainer, manager in any sport, unless they tell us, we guess from circumstantial evidence what they do with their athletes. Ross Staaden in his book "Winning Trainers" which contains a nice feature on D. Wayne Lukas, notes Lukas confided everything about his shedrow except the exercise prescriptions stating (in the height of the Lukas career) that his exercise program is a guarded secret. (With humor I noted the opening of "On the Muscle" showing Lukas and son side by side ponying horses.)

So, Staaden was forced to provide how Lukas trains from a few tidbits of info made available and a few days observation. Lucas (like Mandella in the DVD), made a bit of a bfd with Staaden about his exercise log (before the training question came up), and showed Staaden a couple of pages, which Staaden apparently either copied or wrote down. From the one or two page log and his observations Staaden attempted to paste together how Lukas exercises his horses.

With Mandella its quite similar. The three hour DVD is without explanation of the frequency or length of breezes, gallops, rest periods etc. But, there are a few hints. I enlarged the little clip of Mandella's exercise log and noticed lots of G (for "gallop") many on consecutive days. I heard Mandella promising Pleasantly Perfect five days rest if he won the Pacific Classic (came in 4th.). And, I observed the breezes and times on the tape being anywhere from 7f to 3f. Mandella considered .35s good, but 58 and change way too fast ("I'd be mad if it were closer to the race, and i'm still a little mad two weeks out."). The 7f breezes seemed to be run at a steady about 12.5 sec/f.

I'm somewhat aware of Mandella breezes from my handicapper days. But I posted the question on the Derby Trails Forum which contains several handicappers, as to how frequently Mandella breezes horses now days, and the answer came back "every six days" and that "most trainers (presumably on the west coast) gallop their horses "daily". This would comport fairly closely to my own conclusions about Mandella.

So, what can we presume Mandella does? I think his horses slow gallop probably 4 to 5 days a week on most weeks and breeze once a week. It's my observation that Mandella (unlike e.g. Frankel) will skip some weeks breezing a horse. Nor do I believe it causes great consternation to the Mandella soul to rest a horse three days or five or more. The distances of the slow gallops is unknown, and I'll presume they are a mile to mile and a half. Nothing I saw would make me believe Mandella gallops farther. The DVD is without regular two minute lick gallops, and devoid of any mention that Mandella puts a lot of importance into what he does on his gallop days. He does it. And, I think we are left with that.

Surmise Mandella horses exercise at one half the volume and frequency, and at less speed than the horse "Groovin' Wind" from the shedrow of yet to be nominated to the Hall of Fame trainer RR. What all this means, how to put it together, and conclusions, on the next post.

Wed. 12/20/06 Rest.
Thurs. 12/21/06 Rest
Friday 12/22/06 Rest. Mud and rain have interrupted training for the last three days.

More On Mandella

On a foggy, overcast morning Accuweather reports 1.83 inches of rain in the last 24 hrs. RR is seeing smoke as always, in bad weather. They're training today at Bay Meadows. We, however, though thankful for unseasonal temps, will shut down till Friday morning in deference to a sea of mud. Hopefully we'll get three full workouts before Christmas.

The smiling fellow is Richard Mandella, whom i became aware of in my handicapping days in the mid 1980s. He's a noted trainer at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, the son of a blacksmith and father of a trainer. Like P. Burch, it's a racing family.

Last post I summarily rejected the term "horsemanship" to describe race training, and also broke down elements of training as hopefully most would agree. I'll advocate that differences between trainers primarily involves differences in emphasis, and with these basics out of the way, i'll go ahead and describe Mandella's training and how it applies to our Y.

May we further agree after seeing "On the Muscle" that this barn carries animal husbandry to a very high level. Iv'e seen a few shedrows in my time. It's other than rocket science, but, this one is special. Let us say that Mandella like, by all apparent accounts, Lukas, Baffert, McGaughey, probably O'Neil, and much as I hate to include them Zito, Pletcher, et al, perform highly "adequate" care for their equine charges. That's part of conventional training. I always say if these guys and gals would gallop their horses as much as they bathe them, they'd have something.

Please note I never observed either in the DVD or otherwise what I would consider sophisticated or complex care of horses observing all the latest stuff. We were without any shots of Mandella studying his exercise physiology, the latest texts on nutrition, browsing the farrier forums, reading "Muscle and Fitness" for the latest in sports supplementation, or even studying university equine research. In the DVD Mandella is the instructor instead of the pupil, and what he's teaching goes back to P. Burch with a few variations. Nothing new in conventional training. Its pretty much in terms of horse care a recycling of the same old stuff. But the husbandry is done well and a source of pride for these sorts of trainers, much more so, in my opinion than their exercise programs.***

I'll leave it at that for this post, and next discuss what Mandella does on the track.

Thurs. 12/21/06 A combo of mud and busy day at work, make this the second rest day in a row. A day wasted, I'm afraid.

***please note the unusual breakout of creativity by these sorts from Doug Hendricks who put some avant garde polyurethane shoes on Brother Derek for that nice sprint in the Breeder's Cup Classic.

Mandella's Cat

Watching "On the Muscle" I fell off my chair to see my cat walking across Mandella's shedrow. I have a special kinship with Mandella because we have identically marked cats. If you saw the rest of the cat, she looks exactly like the one in the DVD.

But, we digress. The subject at hand is training, and specifically Mandella training or conventional west coast training as it's practiced now.

It occured to me that different people might have different views of the meaning of the word "training". A good example is a portion of Dr. Rick Arthur's Blood Horse Transcript from just yesterday 12/19/06. Arthur was Richard Mandella's Vet, but now holds the position Equine Medical Direct of the CA Horse Racing Board. That whole transcript describes the profession so well in my view. As to training Arthur had this to say: "My impression is horses are not as hardy as they were 30 years ago. Having said that, I also believe training patterns have changed...there is less emphasis on horsemanship today, and more on medication, veterinary care, and trainer salesmanship." (see Burch)

While I would hesitate to plaster every present trainer with Arthur's above assertion, obviously training then and now mean different things to different people. As does training at this very time in history mean different things to different folks.

This post is to communicate precisely what RR will mean by the term training as I go forward with posts about Mandella conventional West Coast training.

The obvious: race horses perform an athletic event. Training for the event involves variables designed to improve performance. For human athletes the training-coaching variables boil down to drilling, conditioning, and mental work. For equine athlete's it's exactly the same with a couple of additions.

First, for horses training must take into account the fragility and injury prone nature of the horse running at speed. This becomes important both for the preservation of the athlete as well as the safety of the human rider.

Secondly, we have such peripheral issues which nevertheless affect performance, as animal husbandry, animal training as in teaching a dog to roll over, and numerous other side issues which may have some effect on race day performance.

So, "training" horses refers to:
1. Event performance variables involving drilling and conditioning of the athlete.
2. Health, safety and injury prevention.
3. Animal (may i use the term) issues.

Combine the above and I believe you have the horsemanship that Rick Arthur was referring to.

I must say that i'm hardly enamored to the term horsemanship. That this or that person is a good horseman or woman has always bothered me. Use of the term sort of implies that everyone else is not, that there some sort of closed mysterious fraternity or sorority that has an intutive knowledge of horses that is unobtainable by the rest of us. The common usage of the term too often refers to some rural raised with horses who knows to dump feed and throw hay, or rope a steer, and so supposedly, they can train race horses.

Maybe I dislike the term because I have personally seen too many so called horsemen and women injure every single horse that comes into their shedrow most within a short period of time. Since I believe the term misused in our sport, I will reject Rick Arthur's term horsemanship as what I will refer to, and simply use the term "training" as it is defined. This is other than to say that there are and have been superb horsemen and women who deserve the accolade.

With that being off the RR chest, the next few posts will then deal with the training of Richard Mandella.

12/18/06 4 x 6f slow gallop, astride.
12/19/06 6 x1f riderless fast work at near max speed.
12/20/06 Rest day today. we're without heat or swelling from yesterday's work, it's the sort of rainstorm outside blowing in from Denver to halt things for a while. Good timing on the rain!

"On The Muscle"--And Richard Mandella

The trainer I know most about is Richard Mandella. Through Ross Staaden I know a bunch about Tommie Smith and D. Wayne Lukas. I've read Burch and Ivers, and am about to read Stephens. I'll even read Whittingham after i save $54.00 for Hovdey's book. But, due to that great documentary, "On the Muscle" DVD, everybody knows how Richard Mandella trains horses.

For those yet to see it, "On the Muscle" films the Mandella stable at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita over the course of three years training several horses including Pleasantly Perfect and The Tin Man. Let's call this just a great sports story. And, the DVD is so well done, and filmed, and the humans in it so appealing that I find it very entertaining as well as informative.

I've now done posts on Burch and Ivers, trainers with fairly extreme methods. I've chosen next to focus on Mandella for a specific reason. In choosing the Burch style for my yearling Y, one may presume that I have considered and rejected other methods of training. It is significant that Mandella, as I see him, represents (along with a few others) what might be described as the current epitome or culmination of training success as it's possible these days. Anyone that wins four breeder's cup races in one day deserves a little attention with respect to our Y. Mandella, at first blush, would seem a trainer a little backyard guy as myself might want to emulate.

First, perhaps it's wise to place Mandella's training. In a general sense let's use that word "conventional" to describe what Mandella does. On that DVD I would dare anyone to find anything risky in Mandella's training. The Mandella modus operandi appears to be that sort of consensus of modern training that seems to have developed on the West Coast, with variations, of course. But, I think Mandella sits right in the middle of where much of the training establishment aspires to be. And so, it is helpful to identify this training, describe it, and discuss the pros and cons as they apply to my yearling.

This may take several posts, but, in describing Mandella, for whom I have significant respect after watching this DVD, believe we also look at the average training establishment as it now operates, and at least gives a basis of comparison of training methods from which we may choose.

Of course, for the present we're completely dedicated to P. Burch training, and today, on a sunny, crispier, windy day with the horses completely hepped, the training of our Y:

12/17: rest.
12/18: slow gallop: 4 x 6f astride.
Tues 12/19/06: this is a Burch fast day. Would prefer the Astride, but until the Astride paddock (where i have control) is finished, i want certainty that today we "will" get speed. So, the choice is riderless work with two other horses in our paddock. Riderless speed work is much less strenuous than breezing under tack. But, it does accomplish fast twitch muscle work and cardiovascular conditioning at speed. We ended up with the following after a few warm up heats: 6 x 1f at near max speed with about 1 min. rest between heats. Since the horses are rolled into and out of heats, the top speed part lasts maybe 1/2f. The horse was strong, fast as the oldsters, and maybe faster in bursts.
WHAT'S UP BOSS?: After 30 min. rest, I got back up on the horse. This is the third day under tack, and the goal is to get in a little walking. Having done zero ground work we are hardly bit or bridle wise. Ground work can be of value, but, i've discovered you can do the same thing with rider up. We managed walking about 10 yards before Y stopped to scratch his nose and inquired why i kept tugging on that thing in his mouth and hitting him with a stick. A rational discourse, for the present, to be sure.

Today's Work

I'm on the run today, so just briefly include today's work in very nice weather:
12/16 sort of a breeze--more volume than speed
12/17: rest
Monday 12/18/06: slow galloped under the Astride. total time 20 min, but there was a lot of rest between 6f slow heats after an oldster jumped fence and joined Y. then, off course and all over the place. Got in enough galloping and then quit. Saddle placed on Y, and rider up and off three or four times. This was the second day under tack. I let the horse stand calmly. without problem. tomorrow maybe a few steps.
Tues: the plan is several riderless spurts. Till I get the Astride paddock built where I will have more control, I want to make sure we do sufficient fast twitch work, which is what this horse was shorted on in his early care.

Riders Up

This came out of the truck today, where it had been collecting some dust since the Woodland's meet, a welcome piece of protection considering the possibilities that can occur the first time on the back of a yearling horse.

I've broken several of my own babies over the years. A couple of events, pictures or snap shots of moments in time of breaking past youngsters always come back to me.

The first is in that show barn about 20 years ago when one of those show trainers created such a huge moment of drama in getting onto a youngster for the first time in the middle of the dirt arena. Everyone was told to be quiet, the shush command rushing up and down the alleyways of the arena like dominos. And there was in the center of the arena this skinny cowboy with his boots and white cowboy hat for the next 30 min. with three people holding the horse, making this bfd about actually getting on, which he finally did with a palpable sigh of relief from his tensely waiting audience, and the horse just stood there, with myself the newbie trying to figure out what the heck that was all about. The only thing missing there was the drumroll when the fella actually did finally mount up.

The second memory is of my yearling black filly Double Maggs by Brookover (a full brother to Bold Forbes) just purchased for $4000.00 at Fasig Tipton. Maggs was my first break, and she never flinched, protested or did anything at all as i gradually over a few days applied saddle and girth. Then came the day some friends came to the farm just as I was about to apply the saddle. We were talking about this and that as I unconcernedly tightened the girth, and turned away to do something. Out of the corner of my eye i saw this filly jump off the ground on all fours at least three to four feet high up in the air, people scattering everywhere, and her landing then bucking off to the left.

I still put those two scenes together--the one to show how easy it is to get on, and the other as to what can happen. Hence today the Tippery Vest.

Really, this is going to be easy. I might have had my neighbor hold the horse and gotten on two weeks ago, but, i've wanted to do this one by myself. No audience please. Then whoops, as myself and the saddled Y approach the mounting block intentionally placed in the middle of a circle of flakes of hay, the three older horses decided this very moment to start munching the hay. And so an audience afterall, ringed around myself, Y, and the mounting block; three horses in a ten yard diameter circle. This company was welcome. And then, to add to the drama, my gray tomcat Rollin' Rodney, a frequent spectator to the proceedings, also parked himself just outside the circle of hay watching intently. The whole scene was worthy of a camera had i had one. Humerously, Rodney only moved when it was over.

I expected zero trouble. We've been bellying without problems, and the Astride has calmed this boy down to weight on his back. The only possible surprise to the yearling would be my right leg going over his back, and then the motion of sitting down. I got up on the three step mounting block, bellied 15 sec, walked the boy around it to maintain calm. repeated. on the third try i placed the left foot in the stirrup, and stood tall above him, watching his eyes for any reaction. there was none. walked again. repeated. In the first moment of slight tension, I put the right foot over the back, watching his eyes. i was suspended in the air with all weight on the left stirrup, we were without reaction. so I sat down. the horse remained completely calm. I got off and got on two more times. Y just stood there quietly through all. Rider is up. Drumroll please.

Sun. 12/17/06. After the faux breeze yesterday, Y rests.

The Baby Bit Arrives

The Myler Stage I D Ring Comfort Snaffle Size 4 1/2 has arrived. In place of the normal snaffle connection this bit has a roller over the tongue. It is a roller instead of a lozerenge. I'd have preferred a lozerrenge bit, but, they were unavailable in the size.

The bridle is put together, and we give thanks to Stenmans for their wonderful buckle bridles, so easy to assemble. Exceptional "strapper" skills are unneccesary for this convenient set of race bridles and reins, even while placing the chin strap on the cheek pieces proved the usual monumental puzzle for the mechanically challenged RR. I'd do better with a rubix cube.

Each bridle and rein buckle now has been tightened to it's smallest size, and, voila, we have a black bridle and rein set which fits our yearling and was this date successfully placed upon his head.

As Y was without any protest to adminstration of either bit or bridle I'd suspect he was trained to the bit before the Faisig Tipton sale as part of sales prep by Ballsinwood Agent, undoubtedly with a Chifney in-hand bit used in the sales ring. An in-hand bit is used on a normal halter for putting a bit in the horse's mouth while the handler is on the ground. In theory, the Chifney allows the handler better leverage in the event of a rear or other unruly behavior.

Now that we have a bit on the youngster can the first mounting be far off? Should happen in the next few days depending on how much courage RR wakes up with on the particular morning.

Sat. 12/16/06: This is supposed to be a speed day. It had been going so good with daily execution to perfection, you knew the day would come, and today was it. As it turned out, I got more speed work in than the horse.

The 30 lbs Astride was placed on Y. He was released and ran out to the pasture. The plan was several heats over the 1.5f course back and forth with rest between at decent speed as opposed to max speed. I was hoping for a half furlong or two at maybe 13sec and change/f.

The heats went ok. We got the expected heats at the expected distance with the planned rest between. The desired speed we never got. First problem, I broke my whip. The whip really is essential to get that little burst. As the horse begins his gallop I direct him in the arc of the desired direction, and just as he gains momentum I run at him (on foot) at full speed busting the whip. Without the whip i was just running at him. He would speed up, but, less fast than with a whip.

And, today for the first time the young fellow was outsmarting me by running a slightly wider arc. The wider arcs forced me to run faster and farther. Hey, I need work too!

When I finally did get what was looking like the desired quick burst, would you know it, the idiot began passing manure right in the middle of it. This of course immediatley slowed him and destroyed that heat. Never did get another really quick burst. Let's say today was 6 x 1.5 at 15sec/f and change . Note that the 15sec/f maybe goes on for about 1/2f of each heat. The horse first has to speed up, and at the end he slows down. The middle one-half is the fast part.

It was too slow for the really snappy fast twitch muscle type work I wanted. I'm working on a solution to all this which I'll post later. I want to start breezes immediately. The Astride allows us to do this. But, we need a course where the horse is unable to get too far away from the man on the ground chasing him.

Preston Burch

This fine looking fellow is Preston Burch. Born in 1881. I tried in vain to determine date of death. Burch was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. He is the son of famed trainer William Burch and his own son Elliott Burch was a trainer of renown for a period of time. A racing family.

I put off for so long reading Burch's 1953 book "Training Thoroughbred Horses" thinking it dated. When I finally did read the book it became my model.

The Burches are distinguished from many trainers in the sport in that their interest seems to be the sport instead of selling the sport to wealthy owners. While there are some few words in his book about the economics of racing and training, without any doubt Burch, as so few in our business, understood he was training athletes and the great care required.

This can be seen by the training and exercise prescriptions in the book which are actual written accounts of the training of the two year olds More Sun and Greek Ship, and the three year olds
Bold and Assault. Interestingly, Assault was trained by Max Hirsch, and the training method of these two noted trainers seems nearly identical. For the uninformed Assault won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. He won the triple crown in 1946 for King Ranch. The extremely informed will pick up the Barbaro connection here. It's my understanding that Michael Matz, the trainer of Barbaro, is married to the grand daughter of Robert Kleberg, who owned King Ranch and Assault. It is a small world.

I used Burch training on a couple of horses for two or three months on my last venture at the track actually racing. I will report on that experience in a later post. For now, just say that this strenous program produced zero injuries, very fast, fit horses, and an almost immediate win. Without a doubt this sort of program--the old time training--will be resurrected. It is only a question of when. As noted in yesterday's blog, i'll be happy if it's a while before this training becomes widely revived. I'm calculating Preston Burch competing with today's training lot is taking candy away from babes.

But, again we digress from our main subject, the yearling Y.

Friday 12/15/06 and time is flying by. The trainer chose this day to move back to early morning training from the prior late afternoon training. So, we did nothing with horses today and will commence about 8am Saturday, which will give about 15 hrs of extra rest between works.

Preston Burch

I'll write a lot more about this noted trainer at a later time. Since we are doing Preston Burch type training, for this blog to make any sense, it's necessary to describe what Burch recommends. It all comes from his book which can be found at Amazon.

Since Burch was a trainer for a lifetime, in his book basically he describes how he carries out the day to day operation of his stable. The actual training is found in exercise descriptions for several horses including 1951 Preakness winner Bold. Bold's entire training regimine is copied in the book.

As far as I'm able to tell, there's really but one principle to Burch training. Every horse from very young age breezes or races every three days. That's it. The distance and speeds vary according to trainer's judgment and what race is being prepared for. From what is described, Burch appears to favor speed in the breezes as opposed to slow breezes. On the off days Burch writes you rest, walk, trot or gallop as the trainer sees fit. The horses described peform this program month upon month seemingly stopped only by injury and winter layoffs..

I'm less disciplined than Burch, but, I'm working on it. The intent is to do speed work every three days. But, this is an extremely rigorous program. I've done it at times for months at a time, and I'll write more about this experience at a later date. But, Y is the first of my yearlings in this, and so we're walking into unknown territory here, excepting what i read in Burch. Heaven only knows with today's predominately soft training, the present day trainers would poo poo this. I hope they continue to do so, by the way.

Thurs. 12/14/06: today is Day 2 after the last speedwork on Tuesday. Yesterday was very easy light stuff. Today the 30 lbs Astride was placed on Y, and he was let loose in the saddling area. He immediately bucked and played his way out to the pasture were he was driven back and forth over the same 1.5 furling course for precisely 8 min. 45 sec. Eyeballing the work, that amount of time seemed just right. The speed was slow gallop speed. I ran out of horse feed and last 24 hours Y only was fed alfalfa pellets and pasture. I thus expected (and wanted) less energy so that he would gallop slowly, as we plan speedwork tomorrow. Slow gallops in this manner are fairly easy to control. There was generally a 10-20 second rest between the back and forths as the trainer caught up and the chase commenced. I was very pleased to get today exactly what was planned. It only rarely works out way,

Egg Membranes

Just reread the 11/12/06 entry. Somedays you get writer's cramp. Nothing seems to make much sense today, so, i deleted all and we'll deal with egg membranes on another day. Meanwwhile:

Wed: 12/13/06 zero heat, zero swollen parts, legs completely tight, and little fellow has high energy approx. 15 hrs. after yesterday's work. decided on a bit of light riderless--tackless--trot gallop around the paddock with the big boys for about 7 minutes. very light and just a little exercise was the purpose. To fathom the method and the madness of all this, I'll do a Preston Burch training post soon.

A Breakthrough Day?

I looked at P. Burch last night. On December 10, 1947 P. Burch breezed the yearling Great Sun 3f in :39. The youngster had conducted breezes of similar distance and speed on 12/1 and 12/4. Hard to believe, but, that is what Burch did with his yearlings.

I tend to be more conservative, always fretting about those unclosed knees and the still growing cartilage at both ends of the cannon bone. Nevertheless, reading Burch provides a lot of confidence as to what these yearlings can take trainingwise.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, in very decent weather, today's training:

Tues: 12/12/06 This was a pasture gallop under tack. Placed the Astride on Y at 30 lbs and galloped him for about 10 minutes back and forth over a 1.5f distance. The little horse was into it and threw in several half furlong spurts (and bucks) at probably 15sec/f and maybe a little faster. By my eyes this seemed a bit of a breakthrough day. This is one of those horses that looks better galloping under tack than he does riderless. Today he looked bigger, faster, and stronger. And, he continues to flash natural speed. Frankly, I was surprised today that the horse is looking this good this soon. As a side note, I was also quite (may I use the word) thrilled to be on the ground instead of being up on the little fellow during his bucking routine. These youngsters tend to be highly (and deceptively) cooperative the first three weeks under tack, and then, invariably, as they to lose their fear, all heck breaks lose. It's in this period that one may regularly expect to hit the ground, and it's nice have the Astride to endure those antics.

TBA and More Ivers

I received a comment and email from a TBA member, which I tried to return. It came back quail mail. So, if the person sees this maybe they'll try again.

Ivers continues to influence my training, though the last Ivers training done by this stable was in the early nineties. We're more into P. Burch type training these days, though it's still necessary to refer to Ivers on occasion.

Both in theory and practice, discovering something actually works is the easy part. It is the stuff of the theory that fails to work, or looks wrong, or just somehow seems mistaken, that takes so much more of one's energy.

A prior blog generally stated Ivers pre-race program for the prospective Derby yearling. What happens after the horse starts racing?

For Ivers it goes something like this.
Day 1: Slow gallop 4 miles
Day 2: Slow gallop 4 miles
Day 3: 2 x 5f breeze or race
Day 4: Rest
(Note--Ivers wants speed work every four days. By Ivers, the fourth day is the day of maximum "acquisition" for the animal, and also the day by which the spleen and its stored red blood cells need to be emptied lest they become spiculated and clog up micro vessels in the lungs.--I found the every four day speed work nearly ideal. The rest of the program however, creates problems.)

In practice after racing began and also prior to racing, I modified Ivers gradually and wound up with something this:

Day 1: 2 miles gallop--first mile slow, second at two min. lick.
Day 2: 1.5 miles gallop very easy with or without rider.
Day 3: Race or breeze after warm up. After about 6f slow gallop the breeze generally is conducted in two heats--Heat#1 3f warm up at 15sec/f with 1/2f at speed at the end. Heat #2 anywhere from 4f to mile depending on circumstances usually at speed--faster the better--the horses in this program are sound, do it with enthusiasm and can take it.
Day 4: Rest

This modification of Ivers became RR training of the 90s. One continual problem was how to handle the off days. The length, speed and frequency of slow gallops was a debate, and in my view major problem with the Ivers program. Ivers wanted to use slow galloping to develop ligament and bone. Contrast with our present training using the P. Burch model. Burch essentially moots the slow gallop debate by strictly using speed work to condition the body parts of the horse. Burch uses speed instead of slow gallop to develop bone and tendon, which is one off the attractive traits of his program.

Mon. 12/11/06 Y rests.

Buffeted by Wind and Weather

Today is Sunday, December 10, 2006. Training is over. I'm sitting here taking stock of where we are with Y. I'm a little upset because I planned Breeze #II for Saturday, and, it never happened. This is where the "bust" in the Blog title comes in. The one thing I've learned is to keep moving forward, which seems to be a principle observed more in violation than observance.

As usual, the culprit is the weather. Today was up to 45 degrees. Beats five below. But, 20 mph wind, the ground is still ice, mud and dry spots, and, of course the paddock running lanes are all deep mud. Lost two shoes there yesterday, reapplied this date, including the front left which I had just put on Y the day before. I pride myself in tacking on shoes that stay on regardless of mud. They never come off, which tells you what the conditions were yesterday when we lost two. There's a solution to all this, the wood chip track we're working on, but, more on the wood chips later.

The olders are only treading water in this weather, but for the rooks just beginning training, any work is a step forward. The little fellow has progressed so much in the 45 days he's been here that you would fail to recognize him as the Y that arrived 10/26 from Fasig Tipton. If only I'd taken pics at the time.

Sun 12/10/06: The Astride, weight about 25 lbs, was placed on Y, and there was about 10 min trot-lope in the pasture. This dead weight seems to affect the horse to almost twice the actual weight. Y looked a lot as if he were carrying a heavy rider. Since weight was increased this date, we went easy. Then some bellying--the first since the ice storm on 11/29. Followed by 10 min riderless around the paddock with the big boys--pretty easy stuff. He was tired by then. But, 20 min total exercise is an increase in volume. Per Ivers, tomorrow we rest.

Ivers Postscript

i'd like the blog to contain some description of Tom Ivers training. It's technical. Though I plan Preston Burch training with Y, Ivers has influence on what I do. Bringing science to the race track- equine exercise physiology--is an appealing concept.

Ivers proposed training a yearling for the Derbyover a period of nine months prior to race #1 in three three month stages:

Stage I: work up to 6 miles per day slow gallop.

Stage II: 3 x 1 mile increasing speed gradually as you go to heats at 2 minute lick at the end.

Stage III: 3 x6f gradually to racing speed. The last two weeks your workout might look some like this:

heat 1: 6f in 1::19
heat 2: 6f in 1:15
heat 3: 6f in 1:12

there are rest periods between heats. Iver's proposed use of the heart monitor to determine lenght of rest and also to decide when to abort a workout.

Can it be done? See Iver's Tape "Interval Training the Thoroughbred" and watch the black filly go through the program. It is most interesting and entertaining. I put Jeckimba Bay through twice, the last time with Paul Feliciano, who broke Secretariat's maiden, as my rider. You have a heck of a race horse at the end, BUT, also some problems:

1. Each Stage has a goal but the horse reaches the goal only in the last couple of weeks. E.g. Stage III racing speed is reached in the last two weeks of the whole program. Similarly, the Stage II two minute licks are going on only in the last two weeks, and in Stage I your at 6 miles only that last two or three weeks. Rest of the time? Horse is only working up to it. I was concluding as I went, speedwork in this program is deficient.
2. This is a nine month program which takes 1.5 years. Stuff happens. Injury, ice on the track, weather. I recall an entire weekend chipping two inches of ice off the wood chip track piece by little piece just so we could keep going. Two weeks off for any reason means four weeks to catch up to were you were six weeks ago. Too much time! The thought begins to come to mind: if we just breezed for 1.5 yrs., what would we have.
3. Then there was the Maryland Shin Study on two year olds simply proved Ivers incorrect concerning his basic premise. Ivers believed you had to go slow first and work up and develop ligament and bone over time to avoid injury. The Maryland study concluded that speed work is necessary from day one because it is only speed that strenghtens tissue to the point of injury avoidance. Ivers was wrong, the Maryland study correct by my experience. The horse gets fitter faster and safer with speed from day one.

So, why bother to look at any of Iver's stuff at this point? Ivers was far more than a training program. Iver's aim was to bring science to the race track, both in training and every other aspect of horse care. Iver's books and tapes explore the available science behind such as feed, supplements, shoeing, riders, stride efficiency, diagnostics, injury prevention, etc. Ivers wished to rid the sport of it myths and old wive's tale, and identify both what works and what is best for the horse. As such, these tapes and books are invaluable and highly recommend. they are all great excepting the last, Fit Race Horse II which seems but a thrown together compilation. The best book was the "Racehorse Owner's Survival Manual". All the tapes are great.

I will add today's training after its done. I'm planning speed work under tack in the pasture: Breeze #II. We'll see how it goes.

Breeze II was cancelled. recognized fairly quickly on walking in that we would fail to get any sort of energy in the pasture today from the older boys. three days of 15 degrees with wind seems to have worn on the oldsters. maybe sleep patters were distrubed. the only one with energy today was Y. An interesting little fellow. He's up to 15'2.5" this date and starting to look like a real horse. we ran riderless for 10 min in still muddy paddock. a few spurts from Y.
idea today was to build in the coming good weather to some strenuous work later in the week.

Ivers

I want to do a one more post on Tom Ivers. Who is Tom Ivers? He's the author of the book on the last post. Ivers wrote "The Fit Race Horse" way back in '84 or '85, both introducing interval training to horses, and spewing scathing, hillarious criticism at the conventional training establishment. Ivers was smart, funny, could write a little bit and was completely dedicated to bringing exercise science to the racetrack.

Over the years I read everything Ivers wrote and watched all the tapes, and I communicated with him on occasion about this or that question. I discovered the original "Fit Race Horse" just after buying my first horse back in '87 named Jeckimba Bay. I put JB through Iver's program twice. I'll avoid the details because the JB experiment ended so prematurely and abruptly when the morning of one of his races JB fell over in the washrack and fractured his pelvis. I'll simply relate--go through the trouble of the Ivers training program and you will have one super fit and strong racehorse.

Unsurprisingly, with Ivers constantly exposing methods (and results) of the mainstream trainers, he hardly received a welcome reception at the race track. When I was doing Ivers I was known as "that interval trainer" which was considered other than a compliment.

It's a shame. If you read Iver's work you see the man brought a lot to the table. He died recently just a little older than me of leukemia. So much energy spent,such really great work, and still so little actual attention to science in our sport. Iver's work will be resurrected one day. There will be exercise science on the race track, and it will be winning all the races. May he rest in peace.

Wed. 12/6/06: Catching up on my report. Its been a busy week at the office and weather has been horrendous. We now have extreme cold on top of 2 inches precip on the ground. just trying to hold the fort conditioning wise through this stuff. It was lower 20s, but ok. put on the 20lbs Astride, no extra weight, and Y and his buddy pasture galloped for about 10 minutes. they were into it, and so we got several half furlong spurts--less fast than saturday, but fast enough to qualify as fast twitch(muscle) work. Last fast day was last Saturday. So, 4 days between fast works here. Preston Burch wants a fast work every three days. but, in this weather we'll take it.

Thursday 12/7/06 15 degrees + court all day long = rest day.

Friday 12/8/06: given 15 mph winds and 30 degrees as today's high, RR decides to do 5m pasture trot, go to work, and get serious again in the 50 degree weather coming in tomorrow.
We'll go fast saturday and we'll be ok without losing ground.

Rest

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The above is the cover of Tom Ivers long awaited "Fit Racehorse II". If this blog disappears it may be because RR has been hauled off for copyright infringement. You can copy anything off the net now days.

I relate the late Tom Ivers to rest by the little anicdote of watching one of the Ivers' Tapes and there is Tom Ivers taking a drag on his cigarette, looking into the camera opining as to what to do next with the race horse just completing a workout above expectations. What to do? "Nothing" was the reply. Nothing at all.

Thusly, after our "spectacular" first 3f breeze for Y last Saturday under 20 lbs of tack a rest was in order. But, for how long. We are doing Preston Burch training instead of Ivers training. Burch does a fast work every three days and notes in his book that on the other two days you can rest, walk, gallop, whatever the trainer deems appopriate. In the case of our Y, his trainer deems two days rest appropriate here, and we'll get on next fast work soon.

Of interest, Ivers always promoted a rest day every four days. Burch never mentions rest or resting in his book. His exercise prescriptions show his horses working right on through for months at a time. All this stuff you hear now days about horses needing rest, and the ridiculous statement by D. Wayne Lukas that I read just this day about being careful to avoid working horses too hard or they get stale. I've never had a stale horse in 20 years in this business. Just never happens with appropriate training.

Tues 12/5/06 Lousy conditions. Melting ice and deep mud. Pasture galloped riderless for about 10 minutes would describe it. Nothing fast. Best we could do today, and ok after two off days.

More Riders

We've met our new rider Mr. John Q. Astride. Soon we'll introduce our other rider, Mr. Nob. For now i was particularly struck with this picture today. I've met some tough ladies over the years, but, are any tougher than these at the racetrack?

Monday 12/4/06: Second day of rest for Y. Philosophy of "resting" the subject in a later post.

More on the Astride

I received a mail yesterday from Ms. Krista Towns whom i believe the owner, developer and seller of the Astride to the effect that I may have received a defective product with regard to the hard plate material around the wither's area. Ms. Towns offered to exchange the product, which was appreciated. As noted yesterday, we'll continue to review the Astride. For now, after Saturday's work, it is an intriguing piece of equipment.

Ms. Towns also left an interesting website for race horse training:

http://www.heartmonitors.com/horse/index2.htm

12/3/06--Speedwork for Y on Friday and Saturday. Rest today.

The Astride

Meet my new exercise rider Mr. Johnny Q. Astride by clicking on the link below:

http://www.eponaire.com/id2.html

The Astride is a riderless saddle that you may place on your horse at up to 110 lbs. You place weights in the side pouches. Without weights the saddle weighs about 20 lbs. I am still evaluating the Astride. The lady who runs the website has a good idea with this, but imo it may need some work. I'm unable to understand why she would use this tough leather instead of softer conforming leather. The part of the saddle that rests on both sides of the withers is very hard material almost metalic feel and threatens imo to bruise the withers. Unkown why you would fail to provide padding in this area as do normal saddles. I'm expecting this combo to be a little awkard for the horse--but, read on. These are initial impressions only. Stay tune on our experience with the Astride.

Sat. 12/2/06: The Astride(without weights) was placed on Y while he was in the pasture with his running companion grazing nearby. Today was the first day I release Y wearing the Astride, and i expected some bucking. Not to be. On release he just trotted over to his buddy. The youngster seems thus broken to a girth and to weight on his back.

My good luck today is that the older horse was game. After a short warm up in which they trotted galloped to one end of the 20 acres, the older horse then took off at about a 2m clip pace with Y carrying his Astride in hot pursuit. They ran at this speed clear to the other end, a distance of about three furlings. I then chased them back and they galloped at a snappy pace back to the barn--2f distance. I then chased them out of the barn and the older horse took off this time at about 85% speed--I estimate about 13.3 sec/f--with Y again right behind the whole way. This lasted about 2.5f followed by a couple m rest and i trotted-loped them back to the barn.

This was Y's fastest farthest effort to date, and it was for the first time carrying the 20lbs Astride. This work was quite a bit faster and farther than what has been previously done, and faster and farther than the development warranted, particularly with the 2m clip gallop yesterday. I'll injury check him tonight. But, the saving grace injury wise was there was a perfect lead change right in the middle of the last heat, and thus only one half that last spurt on each lead. Y with his 20 lbs kept up with the other horse and looked decent. The Astride worked beautifully. It did not slip at all. From the distance it looked as if the horse was under tack--he had that sort of appearance and stride. At the distance I failed to notice the awkwardness and imbalance with the Astride that I expected. So, today would qualify as Y's first breeze under tack. We're catching up, Preston Burch. Today's weather--miserable.

Bits

Here is a photo of Showing Up frothing at the mouth in the saddling paddock before the Hollywood Derby. Is the frothing related to the type of bit material used? Is this frothing desirable pre-race? The bit material copper--as opposed to steel or aluminum--promotes salivation. Copper is lately touted as the bit material of choice. Ever had copper in your mouth? Relevant questions as I search for a first bit for our new Y.

Over the years i've read every book on bitting mostly to dissapointment. The Myler book and video are of some help in teaching basics. I've used a Myler (long) lozerenge snaffle---egg and D-- for several years in training and racing. Are Myler Stage I Snaffles more comfortable for the horse? I think so. They're a little weird to use at first as mouth contact is less than with traditional snaffles. You get used to this quickly. Yet, I have a horse with mouth problems, and the Myler makes the problem significantly worse. Additionally, these Stage I Myler's are heavy and imo add some unwarranted pressure to the tongue. I never see any point in putting a pound of iron in a horse's mouth. Earth to Mylers--please manufacture a light weight racing bit.

Progress is being made in bitting. The German manufacturer HS Sprenger features several smooth (very expensive) bits with double jointed tilted lozerenges advertised to prevent uncomfortable palate contact and tongue pressure. The new Sprenger "Dynamic RS D Ring" appears as the most comfortable bit i've laid eyes on. But, all the Sprengers are made of a copper alloy called "Aurigan".

As too many other things in this business, in bitting logical phalacies hold sway. Horse people, as humans generally, refuse to carry thought to logical conclusion. ("Man commonly is blind throughout his life, so my Faust be blind than as you end it") The thought with regard to bitting materials is as follows: (see Hillary Vernon Website--Ms. Vernon comes as close to someone that really does understand bitting as I've found): dry mouths in horses are undesirable because when the bit moves it will rub, irritating the sensative mouth--and one may imagine in the show disciplines where the horse might be in the arena for an hour, that bitting comfort and dry mouth would be a concern.

So, the inductive reasoning goes: copper causes horses to salivate, salivation prevents dry mouth, and thus copper would be the bitting material of choice.

Phallacy #1: Because copper makes horses salivate it does not follow that horses have dry mouths with other bitting materials(which is other than to say that there is some bitting material out there that might serve to dry out the mouth). Don't horses salivate REGARDLESS of the material used? The truth probably is (and i've got the question up tonight on one of the forums), horses NEVER have dry mouths. In fact I've yet to notice any of my horses suffering dry mouths using conventional steel or alluminum alloy bits. So, why bother with copper.

Phallacy #2: Do we really want our horses to salivate? Answer: probably not. Reason: bits make it difficult to impossible (depending on the bit) for horses to swallow. Excessive salivation would seem to add to discomfort by creating the gag reflex of needing to swallow but being unable to.

Phallacy #3 (for racing only): in this discipline im supposing that we want our horses to salivate as little as possible. Yes marge, we want the horse neither to swallow or light up a cigarette at the quarter pole.

Thus, i've talked myself out of the $150-$200 Sprenger copper alloy bits. Now, perusing my new "Dover Saddlery" catalogue: whoops--there are hardly any bits available small enough for Y, thus my final decision--a Stage I Myler (Small) Barrell Dee--because its one of the few available. And, on further thougth, i've ordered a Sprenger Dynamic RS D Ring on the premise that I'll poo poo the Aurigan material further after i've actually tried it.

Friday 12/1/06: OMG its December. I arrived home last night and the snow had missed the farm completely. This morning we have the running paddock lumped with frozen mud covered with an ice sheet and ice sheet pastures from the ice storm. The saddling area is a mess. I passed on saddle work this date, though tomorrow i'll move the whole shebang, mounting block and all, out to the grass. Today's remaining option is riderless pasture work with the human trainer running behind the horses--we're planning on at least 20 min of trot. What in fact occurred with good luck our fat one and also the herd boss were hepped, and we got about 3x3f snappy gallop at about 2m pace with our little Y darting about trying to get the lead and being alternately driven away. And so, Y wound up with some significant and much needed fast twicht work on a day when the best I had hoped for was a bit of trot. As a significant aside, the trainer fell on his posterior but once. As a second aside, the little fellow is now strong enough that the former worries that this sort of work might pop a splint have passed.