Topic: How To Train

[Cheq]

Out of the 4 or 5 times I've gotten that equipment reply it's been on horses I've already decided on the equipment. The Jockey said the horse loved the equipment I had already decided on So the feed back is pretty good or we're both morons  However the only horses I experiment with equipment with in training is horses I'm undecided on. I wouldn't change a horses equipment in training just to experiment if I've already decided he runs best with a certain tack. Just my opinion

[Andrea]

From Shanthi's previous comment, my understanding is that unless you're getting comments like "This horse and I get along great" then I wouldn't trust/believe what the jockey says.  Especially if you've gotten it multiple times, since it's unlikely you'll get some 5% chance of it being accurate 80% of the time.

[Fleet Feet Thoroughbreds]

So if a jockey tells you two times in a row that your horse seems out of shape, even though the horses fitness says A, then is it pretty much just random?

[Shanthi]

Unless the jockey knows your horse really well, they stand a good chance of being completely off base with their comments.  (Except the one where they say how well they know your horse )

[Sorceress Edea]

Hm... most of the horses workouts have been with this one jockey.  I'll do one race with the equipment suggested, for fun, and if he bombs (which he's been doing alot of lately  ) then I'll have my answer lol.

[Equestriana]

My horse bowed a tendon in her workout yesterday, he workout was walking for a few miles, thats it. How could she bow a tendon from walking? Whats the chance of this happening often? I've got all my horses walking to get their energy back up, is that the right way to get their energy back or are they going to injure themselves because of low energy?

[Shanthi]

The chance of injury is lower for slower speed workouts, higher for low-energy horses.  Other factors affect the injury chance, but even so, it's pretty small (~1/100)

Training is basically only designed to:
1. Incease fitness without needing to race (so that you can wait for an "ideal" race)
2. Help you get experience for your horse/jockey
3. Help you figure out what your horse wants

If your horse has no energy, why bother training it until it does?

[Equestriana]

^^Ok that makes sense..
I work at the track so how I was looking at the training feature was that the horses worked everyday unless they are injured or have just come off a race. So how I set up my training program the horses would jog/canter everyday. If they race then they would get 3 or 4 days of just walking. Doing this made all my horses energy F, so clearly my plan didn't work. I was doing the same training scheduale that my trainer in real life uses on his horses. Thanks

[Shanthi]

Training has been modified to take less energy from your horse.  Also, energy loss and fitness gain have been modified further to account for your horse's current fitness level.

Horses who are more fit will lose less energy (and gain less fitness - a 1/2 mile jog will increase the fitness of a superfat horse, but won't do much to a lean, mean, racing machine)

This should hopefully balance things out a bit more.  Ideally, maxing out any of the workout options (i.e. cantering for 5 miles) will use up a lot of energy, so keep that in mind when deciding what to train.

[hollyh1125]

That sounds great, Shanthi!   More playtime with the horsies.

[CascadeJade]

OOH! Very cool, I can't tell you how much fun the workouts are, now I can do them even more (theoretically)?!? LOVE IT!

[Smylie]

I guess for the most part I just don't get it. I had a number of horses in the stable yesterday that were either B/A of A/A for energy and fitness. Because they didn't have suitable races I thought a light workout would be in order to knock the energy down some..... like to a B or a C. I set them up on there favourite track with the right equipment and had all of them jog 1\2 mile and gallop 1 mile at 20%. I come ack today and they are all at F/A. That means another 2 weeks of letting them recoup energy before they can race! To say that I'm sad confused and disappointed would be an understatement. Maybe the word I'm looking for is HELP ............

[Shanthi]

For the last time, training is not as cool as you think it is.  It's cool, definitely.    But it's not meant to simulate real life training.  In real life, racehorses HAVE to go train every day because that's the only time they go outside.  FF horses lose fitness and gain energy much more slowly than real-life horses, so therefore, training doesn't need to happen every day.

At the moment, training has 3 functions:
- Help the owner figure out what the horse likes as far as track (dirt/turf/sc) and equipment
- Help the jockey get to know the horse (for use in 2011 when jockeys ride in races)
- Help the owner get a horse fit/keep a horse fit if there is no race immediately when the horse is ready

If none of thses conditions apply (i.e. you know what your horse likes, you don't care about jockeys since they don't apply right now, and/or your horse is ALREADY fit), DON'T TRAIN.

Simple as that.

I can tweak energy/fitness stuff for training until I turn blue, but in its current form, it will never "mirror" real life exactly, so don't expect it to.

[Cheq]

It amazed me when training started that everyone went train nuts. Our horses were fit from racing. I trained some 2 yo's that I was having trouble figuring out. However I used the same jockey everytime I trained a horse. How the heck are you going to get accurate feedback if the jock doesn't know the horse? As for letting jocks get to know the horse for racing next year. There will have to be at least 14 jockey's for every track we race at, and the horses will be moving to different tracks(not as much with shipping but they will move). Unless you can hire a jockey and keep him with a particular horse what's the chance of getting the jockey that trains the horse to ride it? I assume there will be jockey orders like where to run the horse IE from the back, take the lead right away etc.

Training is one step on a long road. What we have to remmember is that this is a game it will never function just like real life (thank goodness). Don't expect it to function that way. Wow this is long I'll shut up now

[Freedom]

I found, when I won my first race, is that you only train when you need to do any of the things Shanthi listed for training reasons. I noticed that fitness doesn't lower very fast (as in, I let my horse rest from energy F for three days, and fitness was still A). So even though it's fun to train, I don't do it unless I need to.