Here’s Bill Finley’s response in TDN:
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I remember reading this a year ago, but can’t even begin to imagine where it was, when I was looking at the necropsy from the 21 horses that died on track at Santa Anita (?)
It was a study measuring bone density, and they measured the foals up until they went to the track, and of course like all the others there was an increase in bone density from at home training.
What was interesting was the noting that after being moved from breeder/spending most of the time turned out, to then going to the track where they worked more but were stalled 100% of the off time, bone density WENT DOWN then increased much slower as workouts picked up. The thought was the stationary nature of being stalled and no long walking all day contributed to the bone density decreasing, no matter how hard they worked during training.
Maybe it’s from a completely bs case study, I don’t remember where to find it just that it made a ton of sense, esp when looking at how we keep racehorses vs other countries. Even if they’re only on the track of a couple of months, they’re stalled, worked or hand walked the whole time.
Edit: found a review that mentions its, section 3
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That must have been what I was thinking about when I asked about turnout above. We do keep horses in some unnatural situations.
I also wonder about hot walkers. Even though it is at a walk, I can’t see much difference between repetitive longeing and hot walking in a circle.
Not a whole lot of TB people use merry-go-round style walking machines anymore. You see them a lot more out west.
European syle walkers “euro-cisers” or “equi-cisers” have become a lot more popular, where the horse isn’t tied and panels separate the sections for each horse. They tend to be pretty big in diameter- 60’+ or more. You can W/T/C on them and easily reverse the direction.
But overall, at the racetrack, most people are using humans for actual hot walking. When available, equi-cisers get used mostly for extra movement/extra fitness or during rehab of an injury. Most major farms have them.
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My tuppence worth. American horses live and train at the track. They work on the same level surface, in the same direction, around a fairly tight oval. British and Irish horses live and train away from the race course and travel to the races. They work daily on multiple surfaces, both right and left handed, often on long straights, up and down hills, on both synthetic and grass surfaces and even often on roads when going to the training gallops. Research suggests that variable surfaces are beneficial in maintaining soundness.
The race courses are each unique and the Trainers have to spend a lot of time working out where and when to run their horses. Placing a horse in the best race for it’s ability and it’s character is one of the greatest skills a trainer has. Some horses prefer one direction over the other, some tracks have a short finishing straight others long, sometimes the ground is too fast or too heavy and some horses really like a particular course and will win there but not elsewhere, over the same distance.
We also have a rating system for all horses, alloted after their second public race. Low rated horses run against other low rated horses at similar weight. This produces good races and provides most of the interest to the betting public. This is possible because of a single racing authority. Britain and Ireland work closely together on this since racehorses move freely over the border.
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I have seen multiple people say that horses are not raced every week.
Behold, my late mare’s racing record. She was raced nearly every week for 3 months + at a pop. Maybe she’s an anomaly, but it DOES happen.
https://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=9120277®istry=T&rbt=TB
