horses training schedule?
Moderators: Roguelet, hpkingjr, WaveMaster
horses training schedule?
What is a average horses training schedule from morning to night at the race track?
Don't know about others - mine gets put on the wall, groomed and tacked and sent to the track when the rider shows in the morning (between 6am - 10am not including 8am-8:30am which is the break). While he is out his stall is cleaned and bedded, water buckets & feeder scrubbed. 1 water in the stall, 1 water on the wall of the shedrow. Return from track, walk until respiration/heart rate nearly normal, out to the washrack for bath, return and walk until total walking time is about 25 minutes. Return to stall. Post bath groom, legs and feet scrubbed and rubbed, standing wraps and padding on the front. 10:30am morning feed. 5-6pm evening feed. That's it unless we are getting shoes, vet stuff, scope after breeze, etc.
So Run for the Roses, as fast as you can.....
Joltman wrote:Madelyn - are your charges at Churchill?
jm
We are at Churchill Downs Training (CDT) which is formerly Trackside Training Center (TTC); before that it was the Sports Spectrum and before that it was Louisville Downs. Churchill owns it, and runs it exactly like Churchill, down to the ambulance coverage, security, track surface, etc. The only thing NOT there is all the rats.
So Run for the Roses, as fast as you can.....
Re: training
jagger wrote:How many miles/week as a 3 yo in training at a moderate gallop or better?
Mine gallops a mile and a half a day plus a half mile jog when the track is dry. If it's wet he jogs 2.5 miles. I don't know how far he gallops on the days he breezes. This is at the training center in Ocala. I don't know what his schedule is going to be at Monmouth Park.
Mine also gets three meals a day, has hay at all times and then gets a small amount of that special hay, I forget what it's called but the colt sure loves it and takes his time eating it after he's done with his bath and his walk. He eats early AM, around midday and then late in the afternoon.
His legs are checked first thing in the morning and again later in the day. He is groomed before he goes out and again in the afternoon. Unfortunately, he's too fit to be turned out in the afternoon but in the past he would be out for the afternoon and sometimes overnight.
-
ratherrapid
- Grade II Winner
- Posts: 1276
- Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:04 pm
- Location: kansas city, missouri
- Contact:
Re: horses training schedule?
Slew83 wrote:What is a average horses training schedule from morning to night at the race track?
slew--my answer would be that horse care varies with the trainer, and also with the humanity and empathy with horses of the trainer and sometimes even with the pro-active owner. Your Q is too broad and general to be answered precisely. There is training and animal husbandry. Schedule is part of that.
If the thinking is that there is some right or wrong schedule I'd guess there is, probably, for the horse. For humans--in general they do what's "convenient" and "profitable" and "easy" at the track instead of what in general for what causes performance and happiness in the animal. E.g. how can one possibly properly care for a 10 horse shed row and be done at 11 a.m. Yet most of them are. Walking through most shed rows will confirm
training
A very nice response, ratherrapid!! I think training is likely done almost totally at the convenience of humans and with little regard to what actually MIGHT be best for the horse. I doubt that there really is too much variability from one trainer to the next. Trainer X does 4f breezes while trainer Y favors the 5f breeze. I doubt if anyone has really tried anything too different for many years.....and it shows.
Re: training
jagger wrote:A very nice response, ratherrapid!! I think training is likely done almost totally at the convenience of humans and with little regard to what actually MIGHT be best for the horse. I doubt that there really is too much variability from one trainer to the next. Trainer X does 4f breezes while trainer Y favors the 5f breeze. I doubt if anyone has really tried anything too different for many years.....and it shows.
That's untrue. That might be true of Pletcher and his cookie cutter approach to training but not every trainer is like that. How far do you think a horse should be worked? Baffert works his charges hard and fast.
Training
I really don't have a specific number in mind, Tappiano. I do feel that from a cardiovascular standpoint, that the horses are inadequately trained, especially for the classic distance. 20 miles/week or less, just doesn't seem enough. Elite level human milers are putting in 80 miles/week and more. When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier, he did it by turning the philosophy of training on it's ear. In his day, milers typically did 25-30 miles per week, mostly in 1/4 and 1/2 mile increments. Gradually, he increased the distance until he was running 60-70 miles/week but in longer runs...some consisting of 10 miles or more. He was not an especially gifted athlete but did recognize that a different training regimen was needed for the 4 minute mile to be achieved. He also was the first to grasp the concept of negative splits...each succeeding quarter being faster than the one before it. With perhaps the lone exception of Secretariat's Derby, this stategy also seems to have escaped the notice of trainers.