Is there anything to be learned from racehorse training that can improve human race performance???

What about training a horse like a human. As other people have said horses barely train at all I guess because if they get injured a lot of times they have to be killed so obv not worth it. They are so much heavier and so much more force on leg bones. What about training them in water like swimming for aerobic benefit since its tricky to have them run a lot. Has anyone ever tried that idk.

An excerpt on overview of training racehorses from the manual in my originial post is below. Details of the specific types of training are described in the pages that follow. The complete manual is viewable in my original post by scrolling through or viewing in another screen. At a glance, it looks like many of the principles used in human training are also applicable in racehorse training.

Overview

3.2. Types of training used for horses

Training of horses should follow several important principles. Firstly, all horses will need

to complete a period of base training. In the past, this type of training has been referred to

as aerobic training, endurance training, and long, slow distance training. In this section

these terms will be avoided. All forms of exercise involve some aerobic and anaerobic

component. The term “long, slow distance” implies that horses only do very long distances

at slow speeds.

Endurance training involves use of base training techniques for many months in order to

prepare a horse for an endurance race. Three day event horses should also undertake

extensive base training, but they also need other training methods.

During initial training of a racehorse and event horse it is important that the stimulus does

not remain the same from week to week. Every 10-14 days, the speed of the exercise and or

the distance should be increased. This increase promotes gradual adaptation of the muscles,

tendons, and bones, enabling structural changes that help the animal cope with increased

demands of higher speed work.

In the author’s opinion, many problems in racehorse preparation can be attributable to

failure to gradually increase the training stimulus. One day the horse is trotting and slow

cantering, and on the next day it is exercising at a strong half pace (about 600 metres per

minute). Thoroughbred horses also frequently go from trot and canter work on pre-training

farms to exercising at three quarter pace or faster (working gallops) on racetracks with very

little exercise at intermediate speeds. Sudden increases in velocity place the support

structures (bone, tendon and muscle in particular) under great stress, and under such

conditions there is often failure of the structure to resist the strain imposed. The result is

seen in sore shins and sprained fetlocks, especially in two year old Thoroughbreds.

Basic training

will be used to describe training at speeds of 200-approximately 500 and 600 metres per

minute in Standardbred and Thoroughbreds.

Strenuous training

will be used to describe training at speeds higher than 600 metres per minute that results in

accumulation of lactate in the blood, but at slower than racing speeds.

Sprint training

refers to exercise at or near racing speeds.

Interval training

refers to use of multiple exercise bouts, separated by rest periods for partial recovery.

Skills development

refers to use of training techniques that increase the ability of the horse to complete a task.

Cross training

refers to use of exercise that is not specific to the event performed, such as swimming.

Recovery days

are days designated for recovery after races or hard training. They enable restoration of

energy stores (glycogen) and repair of minor injuries.

If a horse is not racing or competing, a horse trainer should be able to identify one or more

of the above training types on every training day in a horse’s preparation.

Other training types, such as fartlek and resistance training, are rarely used in horse

training. Fartlek training has been defined as “an unstructured technique...the horse is

allowed to run as far and at whatever submaximal speed it wishes (within reason)”.

Indefinite relief periods are followed by more such exercise (Bayly, 1985).

Resistance training refers to use of exercises where muscle groups work against resistance,

as in weight lifting. An example in horses is walking with large weights carried. A recent

study in two ponies found that 8 weeks of progressive resistance exercise training increased

the strength and size of forelimb muscles (Heck et al., 1996). The ponies carried lead over

the wither while walking on a treadmill three days per week. Ponies performed a series of

progressive sets of weight carrying to fatigue. After training, ponies were able to carry

more weight until the point of fatigue, and there was a 19% increase in forelimb cross

sectional diameter.

I know both pretty well. My first thought was no but then I realized that perhaps there was something to be learned. Keep the mileage low and the quality high.

Horses don’t waste time on stretching.

hannsen wrote:

What about training a horse like a human. As other people have said horses barely train at all I guess because if they get injured a lot of times they have to be killed so obv not worth it. They are so much heavier and so much more force on leg bones. What about training them in water like swimming for aerobic benefit since its tricky to have them run a lot. Has anyone ever tried that idk.

The 50 to 100 mile endurance race horses do train a lot more like humans.

Moran alert wrote:

Horses have been trained for speed for many decades, with significant amounts of money on the line for their performance ability. I found this guidebook and am going to peruse it over the next week, as there seems to be a lot of training info, but not sure if this is what the top horses are currently doing.

https://www.equisan.com/images/pdf/training.pdf

Good idea.

Do the research and report back to us.

Four legs better than two?

ggilder wrote:

Thoroughbreds versus humans wrote:

Thoroughbred horses train basically like Feed the Cats sprinters. Light training with plenty of recovery.

My physicist daughter (Louisa Gilder, "The Age of Entanglement"--Knopf) has researched a book on this subject. It concludes that US race horses are fragile and in-bred and suffer from radically inadequate training compared to foreign race horses. She believes that our horses would perform far better and incur fewer injuries if they trained like US runners, perhaps under Alberto Salazar.

George, did your daughter have a horse growing up? Used to take my daughter to riding lesson, 100 percent girls

Are horse races asked about their feelings and whether they want to race?

mar828 wrote:

Young males with talent are already referred to as "studs."

But some young males need their balls crushed.

stan the corgi wrote:

Put a bit in the runner's mouth and carry someone on their back.....how does it feel?

It happened to these studs after they got reined in: