conditioning

["Beth Glace" <lb@nismat.org>]

Frank raises some interesting points.  The Kenyans seem to tolerate, 
and respond well to, tremedous amounts of work.  They have that 
combination of motivation, dedication, conformation, and natural 
metabolic ability [as Tom might say, acquisition].  This is, I 
am sure, true of all world class athletes.  Most humans cannot do 
these workouts and it would be a terrible mistake for a runner of 
mediocre ability or of moderate training history  to jump into the 
Kenyan's training schedule.  They wouln't last the week.  Each 
athlete must find the maximum workload that they can do and recover 
well from.   It is certainly easier to find an appropriate work load 
in humans.  You can ask "how are you sleeping?  Were you sore after 
that last workout?  How long did the soreness last?  Any niggling 
aches or pains? Did that feel easy to you?"  Much harder in horses: 
we have to be so much more on the lookout for subtle signs of 
reluctance, tenderness and so forth.  Yes, undertraining will result 
in less "overtraining" injuries such as tendinitis.  But it will not 
result in great performances.  The rider/trainer must be the one to 
decide upon the final goals and must factor in other variables.   How 
much ability the horse has, what facilities are available for 
training, how much time can be devoted, are all considerations. 

 I think Tom's point was that we could probably see 
much better performances in all disciplines of racing if we accepted 
that some horses will tolerate much greater training loads than has 
typically been accepted.  That likely will include some higher 
intensity work.  In an endurance animal competing at 50 miles, this 
might mean cantering up long gradual hills. When training for 
longer distances, it might mean trotting up long inclines, that you 
might otherwise have walked.  It could mean 1 day each week where you 
do a fartlek type workout, more big trots with cantering more often 
during a moderate length ride, than you would typically include.   
This will requre a smart, highly observant rider, one who knows the 
horse and who has slowly brought the horse along.  But given a  
gifted rider and a gifted  horse,  applying these training 
techniques should result in improved race performances.
  Beth