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 Post subject: breeding weaker horses?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:08 am 
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Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 10:20 am
Posts: 515
The breeding shed has been getting a bad rap to
producing a less superior horse when we should be looking at the training
shedrow. Training philosophies have not really changed that much in the last
50 or so years to my way of thinking, but training protocols sure have!



There was a different mentality back in the old days than now. Horsemen were
often country folk which involved being brought up, working horses as a
means of survival. All horses were truly beasts of burden and that
motivating concept has been lost from today's sensibilities. Unless you were
raised around, say your grandfather, who actually lived in a pre-auto era,
you will never really know this mentality of "man and working horse". Horses
were not babied under any circumstance and many were brutally treated under
today's standards. Discipline and mileage were important training flavors,
never to be shirked. A horse would gallop or work on a daily basis, seldom
missing a day. I would venture a standard of 2 to 2.5 miles of galloping
daily to be the norm back 50 or more years ago. The question of how fast
these miles were galloped will never be known, nor should they. Each horse
is an individual as was the trainer who managed them, but chances are they
were not loped around the track as is often seen today.--loping at a pace
that a jogging man could easily keep up with.

Preston Burch (1953 book) usually states that a two year old should be
galloped 3-4 weeks at the 2-2.5 mile gallop range before breezing. Usually
he would breeze every third day, thereafter. Keene Dangerfield in his 1946
training book seems to have a similar opinion of galloping most two year
olds a month at the 2 mile length before going to a work schedule of every
third day. He would gallop the day following a work, one mile, and then
resume the 2 mile gallop the following day before another work day. Robert
Collins in his 1938 book tends to follow these two trainer's
galloping/training patterns as well. You will not generally see long gallop
miles beyond the 3 mile range. For one thing, labor was as precious back
then as now. There is only so many hours in a day that can be devoted to one
animal. The earliest training book I have, written by the Brit, William Day
in 1880 suggests that two year olds should gallop about one mile at "half
speed". Older horses were generally galloped the length of the course they
had to run, whatever that may be, twice a day. They would gallop at
half-speed for 1.5 to 2 miles; walk for half an hour and then repeat the
gallop. I am offering this Victorian British view of training only as a
curiosity. They have different training grounds and racing systems over
there.

Differences? I think particularly away from the east coast, you have been
getting a strong influx of quarter horse trainers into the sport. If you
have ever been around these people, you know they don't believe in training
their horses tough. They seem to think freshness in their horses mean little
work. They have brought this idea of training over to the thoroughbreds.
You won't run quite as much into this fresh horse bias on the east coast
where you may have a strong point-to-point or steeple chase influence. Those
boys appreciate a fit horse!Personally, I think modern trainers tend to push
young horses toward their first start with less galloping and breezing
mileage under their girths and they tend to race them into shape as compared
to older methods and training philosophies. This all produces poor bone
remodeling and a horse that tries to make it to the wire on will alone---a
recipe for disaster. I would suppose that many modern race track trainers
would gallop their horses from 1-1.5 miles with little warm-up preparation.
They also tend to give many more days off and to replace their horse's
gallop days with "shed-rowing" (hand/mounted walking) or hanging them on the
"wheel" (mechanical hot-walker). Even worse among the gyps, many times these
horses don't even leave the stall. Breezing and work schedules are the most
glaringly different when compared to the past. There is seldom a modern
trainer that will subject their horses to a twice a week training schedule
(a breeze every third day). Most are lucky to be worked once a week, more
like every 10 or so days. There seems to be a fear of "over-training" and
this is translated by modern horsemen into meaning, breezing too often. Not
so, in my eyes or the eyes of the horsemen of the past. As the final
product, you have a horse with deficient preparatory mileage. In short, an
unfit horse that is not capable of coping with the stresses that is often
demanded of it in competition.



I also believe bleeding is not the fault of the shedrow. We are not
producing a horse prone to pulmonary bleeding. I think our modern horses are
being subjected to more environmental stress factors resulting in a low
immune system and lung infections. This is the only thing that seems to make
sense to me. Vets do not appreciate the insidious nature of biofilm lung
infections which cannot be treated by traditional anti-biotics or even be
diagnosed properly.


Also for an enlightening essay on the human tendency to devalue the stamina of the horse over the ages can be read at:

http://racehorseherbal.net/health.html

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