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Originally Posted by Cajungator26
And because it's so buoyant, they don't hit the ground as hard, correct? What do you think happens to horses who are USED to hitting the ground hard? They will still use JUST AS MUCH effort to pick their feet up and because of that, it causes more soft injury injuries. I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Cunningham on this one.
Here's the definition for buoyant (in case you were wondering why I compared the surface to swimming):
buoyant
–adjective
1. tending to float in a fluid.
2. capable of keeping a body afloat, as a liquid.
3. not easily depressed; cheerful.
4. cheering or invigorating.
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The horses may use just as much effort, but the fact is that they are not hitting the ground nearly as hard because the surface has so much give it it. If that were the case, horses would suffer just as many or more injuries on the dirt surfaces. Concussion injuries often involve soft tissue. I know because I've been there and done that. Therefore, this is not the reason that soft tissue injuries would occur on the synthetic surface. I may agree with Cunningham Racing in the end too, but not for the reasons that you stated because he stated different reasons. In no way can training over polytrack equate to swimming in a swimming pool. Totally different. There is no resistance when training over a synthetic surface.
The main reason he stated as to why the synthetic surface would hurt a horse's soft tissue is the same reason that helps my jumpers over the surface so much. The horses tend to shift more of their weight to their hind end because they have so much bounce, which is why trainers are now seeing more soft tissue problems in the horse's hind ends when training over this surface. I didn't know that trainers were seeing more problems in the hind ends of their race horses while training and racing on the surface. Also, I didn't know until he told me that the horses slip over the surface easily and the surface breaks underneath them. Those are other reasons for the soft tissue injuries in the hind end. Now, Joel's claims make perfect sense...