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Please Reply to: ti tiversW@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Nancy,

IMO the same training strategies are NOT appropriate for equine and humans.
The physiologies are very different.  Horese need far less training
per mile than humans.  And different types of training.
Overtraining is perhaps the biggest training mistake in the sport. >

That's a pretty far-reaching statement, Stagg. And it differs greatly with my 
own experiences in more than one way. My perception is that most athletic 
horses are undertrained and over-raced or over-competed. I base this on 
metabolic responses to racing and training challenges in TBs, SBs, and 
endurance horses. what is your conclusion on overtraining based upon?

There are known indicators of overtraining in horses, widely reported in the 
literature. "Adrenal exhaustion" is one of them. Are you familiar with that 
concept? If not, I'll explain it.

But there are other indicators which occur earlier--cortisol responses in 
racing vs training, for example. Simple muscle enzyme monitoring, or body 
weight monitoring produce indicators. As do a number of other blood parameters.

Now, I know you to be a top horseman and a good conditioner. Let's say you are 
preparing a horse for a given athletic event--30 days from now, 3 years from 
now--it doesn't matter except that the horse be appropriately prepared. And 
let's say that you know that this particular event is going to last about 3 
hours and will require the athlete to operate at 80% VO2 max for those 3 hours 
and your athlete has never seen more than 3 minutes of 80% VO2Max in its life.

How would you go about solving this problem? If your answer is that such a 
thing would be impossible for a horse, then, let's say 60% VO2Max, or even 40% 
VO2Max.

VO2Max means the velocity at which the individual athlete accomplishes his 
maximal oxygen uptake. We can use another parameter if you wish--% max HR. Or 
meters per second. Or % max speed. Just as long as the racing challenge appears 
to be well out of reach of your athlete in his current level of fitness.

You tell me how you'd approach the problem and I'll tell you how I would 
approach it. Maybe we'll learn something from each other.

ti


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