Michael Dickinson, creator of Tapeta

Mr. Dickinson called me one day several months back, he had seen some info on what I was doing online, and was gracious enough to call and offer his support. I was honored to hear from him.

On the subject of heart rate and surfaces, I just found this quote from him during the famous training job he did with Da Hoss in the Breeder's Cup, which shows how far ahead of the game he was back in the late 90's with the development of his synthetic surface, Tapeta:

“When the horses canter daily their heart rate gets up to 200 or 210,” Dickinson said. “If I worked them at 200 to 210 on a dirt track, they’d break down in little time.”