Question

Today's question: How can a 17-year old racehorse, on regular feed - albeit high-quality - have more energy than a three-year old one? It's a question that bugs me, and gets raised once again with Mephisto Waltz on light canter work. Geez! The thing jogged around a track over two weeks ago, is young, injury-free, supposedly muscle-bound and on racing feed, and the Northern Farm people are still in the midst of considering something a bit more strenuous than a light canter. The reason I'm asking, is 'Jaguar' did light canter work for almost an hour that I know of (as I was there watching the kids doing it), on Thursday and Friday, and trotting here, there and everywhere on Saturday, with a roll around in the paddock to follow. Then on Sunday, he went for a 15-minute walk in the countryside (road work), a 15-minute warm-up at various speeds, including fast canter, and then half-an-hour of real hard work jumping - the sweat was pouring off every inch of him, yet his eyes were still burning bright and his ears were pricked ready for another go. After a ten-minute easy walk, he had a nice warm shower and a rub down. On the next day, full of zest and the joys of spring, with no signs whatsoever of fatigue, either mental or in any of his joints, he was in action again. It makes you wonder what he'd be like on race feed!

Don't get me wrong, there are times when R&R is a good thing - Raining Dollars was away for a while as a reward for his hard work, and that's fair enough, as he's a very young horse that had a really hard session followed by a lot of new experiences all in quick succession. He'll now be ready for the next stage in his career. But to just keep sending horses away that haven't done anything is madness. It takes time for them to readjust to a training regime, and time is something Carrot Club horses do not have - if they haven't won by the end of summer, they're gone. Of course, the trainers don't care, because another horse will come anyway (it's Japan - the land of opportunity if you have right school tie) and the clubs don't care, because they'll be more than happy to sell you a replacement from the next catalogue. But it's a sad reflection of the lack of pride and a sad reflection of the way horses are used simply to keep money turning over - there's certainly no interest in developing superior bloodlines, unless they can make yet more money, and no interest in giving horses a fighting chance to excel. Why rock the boat when you have a cushy number, right? In reality, the chances of Mephisto Waltz winning a race are about the same as me winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but there are Carrot Club horses I have a stake in that would benefit a great deal from some proper training - I mean real training, preparing them to race against other horses, not just a clock. The majority of them are so poorly prepared, if they were gladiators, they'd all be dead within seconds of entering the arena...