Horse Farm Training Equipment – Jog Tracks

LSD is important in recovering horses from injury.  LSD is Long, Slow Distance (see the article on this elsewhere) and jog tracks are perfect for this.

All connective tissue responds and strengthens from the Piezoelectric currents that occur when tissue is stressed.  The opposite of this is disuse atrophy (the couch potato syndrome).   Jogging on a controlled surface of a jog track is the perfect way to increase the strength and stamina of horses.

There are a variety of tracks whose construction is determined on the speed that the horse will train and the money available to make them.  Race training tracks can have the best footing, banked turns, starting chutes and gates, and a variety of surfaces such as dirt and grass.  Lay-up farms or polo barns will have a dirt track running the perimeter of a field.  Some riders will also lead 2 or 3 additional horses while riding one (called ponying horses) to exercise several horses at one time.

The surfaces of these tracks need to be continually groomed to provide a smooth, even and safe surface.  Rocks will crop up especially on poorly constructed tracks and require sharp eyes to discover. 

In 1976 when I lived in Santa Barbara California I would arrive at the polo fields at 4:30 in the morning, saddle up one horse and gather up 2 or 3 others.  In the dark I would take this group out for some turns around the track to keep them loose.  I worked 4 to 5 sets before getting to my 1st class at 8 am.  One day one set felt frisky and I couldn’t stop the group.  After a few turns with galloping horses I was ready to bail off my horse but that is impossible while ponying.  My only other option was to make a sharp turn into the infield and pray we didn’t end up in a pile.  We didn’t but on that day my future was definitely in jeopardy.

On my farm in upstate New York we owned a large section of woods.  We marked out a path and hired a dozer to make a jog track in an oval with a figure eight.  It wasn’t level which provided an incline for legging up horses.  This was the most awesome addition to our farm and if you are able to do this, it will also be awesome for your training program too.

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