Re: Stress of Racing Youngsters...

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

I think the results in this article need to be carefully read, since
statitics are a funny thing.  IMO, it doesn't necessarily suggest that
starting youngsters means a long and successful career.  It means that those
relatively few two-year-olds that managed to survive hard training as
sub-two-year-olds were thereafter virtually bulletproof and were more likely
to survive the rigors of racing as older horses.

Its sort of like saying that because we occasionally see successful horses
at endurance rides with crooked legs or long backs, that conformation faults
of that type must not make a difference.  Sure they do---for every
successful crooked-leg horse you see at a ride, how many do you think are
stuck at home lame, never having stayed sound long enough to make it to a
Friday check-in?

There is a lot of documentation that young animals (of any species) have
greater response to stressors than adults do.  But the trick is to load
stress at a rate that triggers a remodeling response without overloading the
system.  There are other studies available that observed that walking on
hard ground for just 100 yards or so was sufficient to elicit an increase in
bone density, and that no increase is observed with additional stress for
that period.  So you don't have to necessarily ride youngsters early---for
our purposes, ponying them around the block at a walk on hard ground on a
regular basis is enough.  There are PLENTY of things a young horse can learn
and do for his first three or four years to optimize his chances of later
success, that don't include hard work, and also won't sabotage his chances
of soundness as an adult.

BTW, the author wasn't the vet I originally had in mind---Ray Geor used to
be on faculty up at Guelph, and I believe in the past year has moved over to
Kentucky Equine Research.  Very well qualified in his field.

JMO,
Susan G
----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 12:24 PM
Subject: RC: Stress of Racing Youngsters...


> Stacy stac.y.a.berger@intel.com
> There was an interesting article in the magazine, The Horse last month.
There was a study done of horses raced on the track, and how long they
remained as sound racing horses over time.  In summary - they found the
horses that started racing training at the age of 2 had the highest
percentage of horses that were sound and successful over the long term.
That age category also had the highest number of dropouts though.  It was
interesting, though - the study shows that the stress of racing introduced
early on better prepares the growing body to the activity when they grow up.
Made me think twice about my own thoughts about racing 2 year olds.  Perhaps
the best solution for the horses, is to start the training as 2 year olds -
but don't actually race them until they are a little older.
>
> You can read the article/study online at www.thehorse.com
>
>
>
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