I have my horses set on what I would like to think is a nice mellow training schedule (just walking the shortest possible distance, but daily). Lately, it seems like I’ve seen an uptick in injuries. I know there was talk at some point of having training schedules wait until a horse is at a certain energy level before kicking back on. Is that just something being worked on for the beta or is that something that should actually be working now?
For example, my 5yo mare, Ch. Keepcalmandcarryon ran a race on 1/20, then the code had her walk 1/2 mile (nothing strenuous) on 1/21, 1/22, 1/23, and 1/24. On her short walk on 1/24, she bowed her tendon (her first ever injury). Is this an error in the code? Or do I need to figure out a way to be more hands on with training schedules after a race (honestly, I’m not sure that I can due to RL, so that would probably mean I just do as I’ve been doing: suck it up and let them rest, and watch our injuries pile up). She’s already back up to A/A. At 5, I’m contemplating on whether or not to end her career there. For now, I’ve shipped her back to the farm to rest so I don’t accidentally turn her training back on.
After a race I always wait till they are back at A/A before they train again… and if they are near home I often ship them to my farm even after 1 race. I haven’t had any injuries in a long while (I hope that my horses will not injure themselves now that I wrote it…).
On my training schedule I don’t have any horses training anything on Thursdays or Sundays just in case they race on Weds or Sat (i’ve set it up for auto training). I then walk the following day and some light jogs on the next days. I have had injuries though, a few bowed tendons in the last year, but I honestly don’t ship them home as often as I should and with the quantity of horses I have i’m not surprised some are hurt.
I don’t think its a bug, your horse’s natural energy (which you cant see, its not the A/A energy/fitness) may be low. Often the jockey’s comments will give you a hint if natural energy is low
My 2yo’s walk or jog 1/2 mile every day, but 3yo+ horses have cantering twice a week and a breeze once a week with Wednesdays off. The day before a race is always the lightest work (walk or jog). I try to keep horses from shipping too much, and I sometimes give them 7-12 day boarding break right after a race to let them bounce back. Some horses are just more susceptible to injury than others.
I always wait till energy is back up to A before I train again. If you’re asking, however, whether or not the system should detect that, I would guess something that sophisticated is only in the beta, because as far as I know, the training schedule will continue as it’s set, regardless of whether or not your horse is rested up and ready to go again. The only time I’ve seen a training schedule turn itself off is if a horse has been injured during a workout. Otherwise, even if your horse raced today and is at F energy, but you have the schedule set to train on Thursday, it’ll still train on Thursday. I always delete the horse’s training schedule right before the race, then add it back in after its energy is back up to A.
As for injuries, this is what the FAQ has to say:
From what I understand, horses that are very young or leaning toward the “too old to race” side tend to get injured more frequently, but it’s not a rule. Also, frequency of racing/training will up your chances for an injury, just because the more you do it, the more opportunities they have to get injured. I’ve had horses get injured who are at optimal energy, have been away from the farm for only a couple weeks, and who are at their prime age. Sometimes you just get a whole lot of unlucky rolls in a row.
I’ve been using this same training method for the past 4-5 years and have only recently seen (what seems like) an uptick of injuries. A lot of these racers are descended/related to the ones I had during that time period so I would assume genetics are similar (though obviously not quite the same).
Additionally, all my horses went back to the farm to rest for a month around October/November, so NE isn’t tip-top but it shouldn’t be abysmal quite yet. I check jockey comments before each race to try to make sure NE is up to par (plus check on general attitude, change in preferences, etc.)
It does seem slightly more prevalent in 2YOs and 5YOs, so maybe it’s just the maturity levels? Just trying to find a way to cope that is actually feasible with real life time constraints. In a perfect world, I’d have tons of time and attention to devote to each horse and could manually evaluate and train them daily…but I don’t see that ever happening.
I keep mine on the training schedule even if they’ve raced but Thursday’s and Sundays are usually like a walk or jog. I haven’t seen too many injuries but if I do it’s mostly in my older horses. Sometimes if I have the time, I’ll bump it down to a walk only if they have D or F energy but I do have far less horses than most of y’all. I just hate having to delete and re-add a training schedule.
That does not currently happen. Currently automatic workouts will not run if:
the horse is at a farm (yours or boarding)
the horse is entered in a race
the horse hasn’t already worked out (e.g. you didn’t do a manual workout)
the horse has raced today
If your horse is injured during training (which is meant to be rare, but as others have said the more you train the more you roll that virtual dice), its training schedule will be deleted so that it doesn’t train while injured, but there’s nothing preventing you from resetting the training schedule the next day (it’s up to you to decide how long a recovery the horse needs).
Ok, that makes sense. I knew that was how it used to be. Am I crazy that I thought you’d said this was a feature you were working on or at least hoping to add in future?
I recently added a second training schedule for horses that no longer need frequent training (i.e. jockey already knows like back of hand, know running preference, and found equipment they love). I guess I’ll need to reevaluate this - maybe put more horses on this, and remove training altogether for horses that don’t “need” it, maybe.
Does this mean that even if you have a horse set up with an active Training Schedule, if it fits any of these conditions, it will not be trained? I seem to spend so much time adding and deleting horses Training Schedules when they get shipped to my Farm or a Boarding Farm, etc, time that could be used for better planning. I usually delete their schedule when they are at a Farm but don’t always remember to add it back in when they are back at a Track.
Also, what about if a horse is In Transit? Presumably it wouldn’t be training at that time, especially if it is travelling by Air.
Yes, sorry, I forgot to add that if they’re on a trailer/plane, they can’t train.
Essentially if they have a schedule, are at a racetrack (boarding farms are implied to be down the road from the track), and haven’t already done something on the track today (workout or race) then they should have their scheduled workout happen. Otherwise, it shouldn’t happen.
I keep my horses on a schedule at all times whether they are at a track or at home. When they are at home they don’t train so I don’t see the need to delete the schedule. They even train when they are at F energy but sometimes I’ll go in and change those at F to just walk 1/2 mile that day. I haven’t been getting injuries -knock on wood- by doing this, so it’s been working.
I keep adding and deleting schedules because some of my horses have a schedule when they are entered in a race, and I train them along with everyone else, until 1-2 days before the race when I don’t want them to train anymore; so I have to delete their schedules if I want to manually run everyone else. Then I add their schedules back when they’ve recovered to A energy.
I have most of mine on light schedule with maximum distance of 4f. No work on Sundays, and after a race they get 2-3 weeks at home or at boarding farm. Then back training for 2-3 weeks before next race, still get injuries but not that many. Although I do wonder if I’m overdoing the rest/training after a run meaning my horses don’t race as much?
If energy is on D or F they wouldn’t be trained, and if one entered to run isn’t on A for both energy and fitness I will scratch from race. I don’t do anything with any 2yos till March(and that’s the oldest ones only) light work for 3 weeks then check workout comments before entering or sending home. They seem to perform better than when I used to work them on New Year’s Day to see which were fastest!
Hope this helps and interesting to hear comments ref the overdoing the rest between races etc…
Speaking of training - Shanthi - would it be possible to make master training schedules editable? If I could edit the master and save it to all of the horses that it is selected for it would save me…hours maybe??
For now, I’ve shipped her back to the farm to rest so I don’t accidentally turn her training back on.
