Katsumi Yoshida invites us around Northern Farm

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THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN - EUROPEAN TRAINER - ISSUE 43

Yasutoshi Ikee - aiming at Arc glory

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THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN - EUROPEAN TRAINER - ISSUE 39

If Lasix is the answer...what is the question?

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David Marlin (05 February 2010 - Issue 15)

TRM Trainer of the Quarter - Luca Cumani

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Luca Cumani and has enjoyed success in top races all over the world including the Hong Kong Cup, the Japan Cup and the Breeders' Cup Mile as well as inmuerable wins closer to home, most notably two Epsom Derby victories. 

Sophie Hull (European Trainer - Issue 26 / Summer 2009)

Hong Kong - Far Eastern racing run by an American

The view in one direction frames an expanse of the endless Hong Kong skyline, in another the emerald Happy Valley Racecourse, but this is unmistakably the working domain of an American. Portraits of Man o' War, Spectacular Bid and presentation photos made after races at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga decorate the walls, the occupant standing beside Orientate, Sulamani and Funny Cide.

 In the early years of the Breeders' Cup, which remains a young event when considered within racing's historical context, Bill Nader would leave his various duties at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire, where he took his first racetrack job as a press box aide while still a student, for an assignment on the event's notes team, which gathers information concerning the participants for dissemination in the media. The world looks much different from the corner office on the top floor of the Hong Kong Jockey Club headquarters.

The executive director of racing in Hong Kong - the first American ever appointed to a position of such influence in what is a unique racing and gambling enterprise that has for more than a century impacted on the life of almost every citizen of the former British colony (returned to Chinese control in 1999) – is less than a year removed from New York, where at times it appeared that Nader was single-handedly guiding the daily business of a listing ship that has for years been imperiled.

Nader was the face of the New York Racing Association and its most reliable voice at a time when every day, it seemed, brought new crisis. Five years of tumult began with the turn of the century and a scandal spawned among betting clerks that progressed upward through what most consider the most important of American racing organizations. The guilty clerks were imprisoned on various tax fraud and money laundering changes as were two mid-level executives. Key people left the association, retired or resigned voluntarily, some on the day they qualified for a pension. Highly placed executives were forced to resign. Barry Schwartz, the outspoken and sometimes controversial chairman of the board, stepped down in frustration. The state's politicians and media turned the association's troubles and the question of franchise renewal into a public circus. Nader was left, usually alone, in the storm's eye.

The Association faced an array of threatened federal indictments avoided only by a long period of operation under the thumb of a court-appointed monitor and eventually filed the papers necessary for reorganization within the framework of bankruptcy law. Nader, originally hired to head the simulcasting network, watched the New York Racing Association's workforce shrivel and took up the slack left by manpower and expertise that once departed was not replaced. As the morass thickened, Nader rose to the position of senior vice president and chief operating officer calling on experience and skills honed in the heat of political, legal and financial battle for survival learned in New Hampshire.

Thoroughbreds no longer have a home at Rockingham Park, which now conducts only harness racing.

 It was always a bootstrap operation, a fine place for the education of a young person with designs on a career in racing, and Nader steeped himself in a curriculum impossible to duplicate in the traditional halls of academia. He worked in the publicity department, developing relationships with the media; sharpened handicapping skills when charged with assigning morning-line odds; developed relationships with horsemen while working in the racing office, gained an understanding of their concerns and needs; couriered videotape to the local television station for the evening replay programs; negotiated simulcast contracts; learned to call races when the principal announcer was absent. It is also the place in which the direction of his life first took shape and form.

"I lived a bicycle ride away from Rockingham and worked in the press box as a summer job while attending the University of New Hampshire," Nader said. "When I was 21, I became the track oddsmaker. In that role, I further developed my handicapping skills and also my strong interest in the sport.

"I first became interested in racing through one of my best friends, my father, and we would go racing once a week. Racing helped our father-and-son bond and we spent a lot of time together discussing and enjoying the sport, especially in his later years of life and that is something I will always treasure. I had always turned him down when he asked me to go to the racetrack because I was active playing sports and being a horse racing spectator had no appeal to me. It took Secretariat to open my eyes in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. I watched on network television and that was the turning point.

"Rockingham provided a foundation because out of necessity you got an idea of how every department at the racetrack should work.  And we had some good races there – the New Hampshire Sweepstakes and the Spicy Living Handicap, races that New York trainers and others would send horses to, so I was exposed to what was at the time a higher level of racing. Still, the move to New York was an awfully big step.
"When I was first offered the job in New York, I turned it down. I didn't feel as though I could leave Rockingham in the middle of a meeting. But when the meeting was over, the job was still open and I moved to New York at the beginning of the fall meeting at Belmont in 1994. Luck. If they'd found someone else during that time, I may never have had the opportunity in New York. The people at Rockingham didn't believe I was going to a place that big, but if you love racing and the New York Racing Association calls, that was it."

New York, however, besieged by posturing politicians and those who sought to take over the racing franchise upon expiration at the end of 2007 quickly became Kafkaesque, far from the utopian professional environment Nader envisioned.

"The problems and politics surrounding NYRA and its franchise were personally challenging and incredibly frustrating at times," Nader said, "but, in all honesty, I could fight the fight with the best of them. I came from a humble racing background and the privilege of being intimately involved with the high quality of racing in New York was a great equalizer. I could take the punishment as long as I knew there was a Grade 1 on Saturday and that Saratoga was only a few months away. With all of the personnel changes over my 14 years at NYRA, I knew there were many people in that organization that looked to me for leadership and for someone they could identify with. There was no chance of my leaving NYRA or so I thought, until the Hong Kong Jockey Club called. I had long admired the HKJC from a distance and I knew I would not get a second chance at the opportunity of a lifetime."

The move from New York to Hong Kong was for Nader like walking through a looking glass. He left pathos, which continues in his absence, for an organization unlike any in the world. In a city of seven million people among whom gambling is central to the culture, racing is not the sport of kings but the king of sports and membership in the Jockey Club, a requirement for those who aspire to ownership of racehorses, is a symbol of status considered almost priceless.

With the possible exception of the Japan Racing Association, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is easily the world's most prosperous racing enterprise, made more so by a gambling monopoly that includes the lottery and wagering on international soccer matches. Originally established as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club after the introduction of racing in the region by the British, who constructed a racecourse in 1845 on the only suitably flat land on the island –f a drained malarial swamp with the whimsical name, Happy Valley – the Jockey Club, after the Chinese government, is the region's most important organization and in real terms perhaps the most important based on its impact upon the lives of Hong Kong's citizens.

Though the British first brought racing to the island, the native Chinese have taken the sport to heart in a way that has no frame of reference outside Asia, participating with a fiscal enthusiasm unprecedented elsewhere. In 2006, Hong Kong bettors wagered $63.86 billion – $8.2 billion in U.S. funds – though the Jockey Club holds just two days of racing, or 16 races, per week, from September through June. This is more than half the $15.6 billion wagered on 58,851 races run in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico – population 338.5 million – during the same year

The people of Hong Kong, only an hour by ferry from the explosion of opulent casinos in Macau, wagered another $30.2 billion -- $3.9 billion U.S. – on soccer matches and $6.6 billion – more than $848 million U.S. – on the lottery. The Club, conduit for all money wagered legally in Hong Kong, is the region's largest taxpayer and supports the majority of charitable institutions, research organizations, medical facilities and recreational programs. It is impossible to travel far in Hong Kong without seeing the Jockey Club logo on everything from hospitals and schools to parks and animal shelters.

The two Hong Kong racetracks are pristine and in almost perpetual renovation. The management, a multinational team of highly experienced executives imported by the Jockey Club, is progressive, deeply interested in maintaining an atmosphere in which the integrity of racing is beyond question. It meets challenge with action, as it did last year when in response to the migration of high-level bettors to offshore bookmakers offering rebates, the Club responded with its own rebate program, which effectively reversed the trend.

The Club takes virtually every facet of racing into its own hands and employs everyone required for the conduct of racing except trainers, who under the circumstances suffer no burden of payroll or slow-paying owners. The Club maintains testing laboratories and veterinary hospital, pays for feed and medication and though only eight percent of bets are placed on-course, when the gates open at Happy Valley or Sha Tin, the tracks are animated by huge crowds of people with a collective focus – betting, which is in turned shared in the most remote corner of Hong Kong, where the speculators and the tote are joined by wireless device.

In the 16 hours of flight time between New York and Hong Kong, Nader went from holding a finger in a crumbling dike to occupying one of the highest positions of authority in a racing organization that is boundlessly successful, astoundingly affluent and held in a position of almost reverent esteem by the members of the community it serves.

"The thing that impressed me immediately was the attention to detail and the commitment of the people," Nader said. "There is a refusal to settle for second best. Everything is first-class. Then came an appreciation for Asian racing and its structure, which I found fascinating, much more so than I ever expected."

Eight months after arriving in Hong Kong, Nader celebrated his 50th birthday on the day of the Cathay Pacific-sponsored International Races, four Group I events run at the end of a week of lavish parties at the expansive and electric Sha Tin. "Before I moved here, the man I replaced (Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who was promoted to chief executive officer) told me that it would take two years before I really had a handle on job. I don't think it will take two years, but this has been an eye-opening experience. For instance, the betting on the international races will be less than you would expect because the bettors don't know the foreign horses. But we're running two races after the Hong Kong Cup and the last race of the day has the potential to generate more betting handle than the total for the day at Aqueduct and Hollywood Park combined."

The superficies run deep in Hong Kong.

"This is a place of great wealth. The economy is strong, the stock market is strong and many people are able to afford horse ownership," Nader said. The equine population of horses in training is just 1,200 and no owner is permitted interest in more than four. There is currently a 16-month waiting list of those who have applied for membership in the Jockey Club on a level that permits horse ownership. Those eventually admitted to what may be Hong Kong's most exclusive circle will have survived an exhaustive background check and examination of financial resources and paid a $250,000 (HK) initial fee.

The inevitable and enviable denouement is a model for the world that is impossible to duplicate. "The resources here allow you to do things you'd never consider anywhere else," Nader said, "but other things done here are possible to reproduce anywhere. If you can knock down the barriers and wipe the slate clean, these are things that can be done anywhere."

Foremost, Nader said, is attention to the concerns of every segment involved – from owners, trainers and non-owner members to bettors. "We maintain a customer-friendly racing environment and the state-of-the art drug testing is one thing, but the way the racing is governed is a key element. The jockeys and trainers may complain that fines are too stiff, but safety is a key element in the decision making process and the club demands respect for the rules. What separates racing here from virtually everywhere else is the transparency."

At the end of the day, the unfolding international races, with sprinter Sacred Kingdom and miler Good Ba Ba impressive in victory, only strengthened the upwardly mobile position of Hong Kong-trained horses on the global stage upon which the membership of the Jockey Club aspires to excel in the mold of their British mentors.
If Hong Kong will not be duplicated, it can at least be emulated.

"We have great expertise in specific areas that we are willing to share," Nader said. "The Club has brought great talent here from a number of countries.  There is also great expertise here in the construction, drainage and maintenance of turf courses, which is important to all the stakeholders, including the public. European horsemen come here knowing that the ground will always be good to firm, no matter what the weather. There are things that can be learned here and people come here from other parts of the world to observe. We're very interested in doing whatever we can to assist those in the industry from other countries."

There is much to be learned in Hong Kong, but it is first necessary to make the trip.

Reiki - the ancient Japanese healing method

By Paul Peacock,

Many racing yards are turning to a number of alternative treatments in an attempt to either speed healing times, improve the life styles of individual thoroughbreds or respond to the wishes of owners who themselves have clear ideas and requirements for the care of their animals.

A fast growing treatment for racehorses is Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing methodology which is said to date back over 2000 years, but was actually ‘discovered’ by a monk in Victorian times. It involved a combination of Japanese and Christian philosophies – the manipulation of Chi and the laying on of hands. Only recently has this technique been used with animals, possibly most successfully on equines.

Trainers frequently try Reiki for a halting and infrequent period, and there are two reasons for this, according to Beth Luck, an equine Reiki therapist. “If substantial treatment with Reiki takes place, and is successful, the horse can become calmer and in some circumstances loose that winning instinct – it becomes a horse again.” The last words a trainer needs to hear is that a racehorse somehow calms itself in a racing sense. The second reason is the unbelief that the fundamentals behind the process actually work. But there are reasons why, in certain circumstances, thoroughbreds might benefit from the attention of someone trained, or attuned, to Reiki in a racing yard.

As we shall see later, Reiki is associated with a calming effect on an agitated animal, and the greatest successes have been achieved where the thoroughbred has become difficult to ride, or is confined to box rest or shows signs of agitation.

It is a source of frustration often repeated by practitioners that they believe an animal needs more attention and or rest than might be actually available in a racing schedule, and consequently the patient is being only partially accommodated and frequently returned to racing too quickly. It would be easy to see that an animal only partially well would fall to injury in training or on the track. But then are the claims of Reiki practitioners valid, after all, every athlete, human or equine will benefit from a lot of rest and attention?

Reiki is thought to be connected to the body's magnetic or energy field. Some people say it is the manipulation of the Universal Life Energy and that the ‘patient’ receives energy through the practitioner which puts things right. This energy is sometimes referred to as ‘chi’ and is the same as that which is manipulated by acupuncturists and Oriental massage practitioners. This is the same so-called energy system as that used in Yoga and other oriental healing techniques. The basic idea is that the energy pervades all living things and is needed in order to put your system in the best possible status so that you can heal yourself. There is said to be a difference between the Reiki energy and all the others forms of chi; it is described as ‘beautiful energy’. The more a practitioner delves into the process the more beauty he or she is said to recognise in the energy. All the other forms of chi are cold in comparison.

In Reiki this energy can be received by the laying on of hands or the near contact; the hand being waved or held just above a special point. Thus the patient can ‘drink in’ energy which allows the body to heal itself. The ‘special points’ are known as Chakras, and the animal is supposed to let the person know which, if any, can be used. It is also important for practitioners to make sure the animal is happy before any administration. 
The crown Chakra is between the ears and another, called the third eye, just above the line of the eyes. There is another by the throat and yet another by the withers and there is a solar plexus Chakra and a sacral one, with a root one by the rump. Interestingly, all these points happen to be largely where the animal’s centres of lymph nodes.  All these points are used by the practitioner, and the training the Reiki practitioner undertakes involves an appreciation of which channel is actually accepting the energy.
The idea of there being an energy involved in the healing process should imply that the animal actually feels something. There are reports of exactly that among people who are able to report their responses. Warmth and tingling are frequently reported during sessions, but there are few if any scientific studies that measure either a temperature rise in tissues or an increased blood flow where the sensation is being reported.
Various claims are made for this treatment in humans from the healing of cancers to tempering of moods, and there is a wealth of circumstantial evidence to show the treatment has been to good effect. But there are equally a large number of claims of fantastic results with horses, particularly where the animal has suffered some trauma or other.

The use the non scientific term, ‘puts things right’ about best describes the process of what practitioners believe the ‘energy’ is actually doing. Some practitioners call this chi a spiritual energy to differentiate it from heat or kinetic energy. In short, the energy is said to be something all animals need, but is not measurable in standard scientific terms. Consequently, some practitioners are able to provide treatments from a very great distance, the conduit for this energy being some form of spiritual communication.

Simon Earle, who practices what he calls natural horsemanship, had a Reiki practitioner in the yard for some time who worked on the horses, but the results were not discernibly different from the other work in the yard.
Lisa Venables of Holistic Horses has used a modified form of Reiki in her yard where animals have been discarded from the racing scene. She uses a number of techniques, but has an interesting take on Reiki which retains the energetic theory, but could provide an insight into the therapeutic effect of the treatment. She believes that we communicate our state of excitement to horses and the action of Reiki is basically calming. In order to be able to do it in the first place, the practitioner has to be confident and calm, and this is communicated to the animal. A horse that has a problem, and suffers from the stress of the injury or illness and also the stresses of living in a fast paced, modern racing yard, might not heal as well as it could. The Venables version of Reiki involves bringing the animal to a relaxed state, and once relaxed and at peace, healing has more of a chance of success. This communication of the human’s calm, she believes is an energetic process. This is more likely to mean a proactive understanding between the animal and the human, responding on feedback from the other, and emotional rather than spiritual in essence.

This empathetic idea of Reiki is certainly more understandable to Western minds and yet still draws on resources or perception and communication that might be considered ‘alternative’ by many. The kind of person who is able to communicate in this way might not fit in to the life of modern racing stables, with the fast paced sequence of training and therapies. However, Lisa believes every yard should have one person on the staff able to “communicate” with the animals in such a way.

The law regarding Reiki is the same as any complimentary therapy in that it must not be used as frontline treatment. It is an offence not to allow a suitably qualified vet to treat any ailment or injury the animal might develop. It is similarly an offence to diagnose a problem or propose a course of treatment. In short, Reiki can only be administered as an adjunct to treatment, under the supervision of a vet. The vet is within his remit of care to refuse to allow Reiki, or any complimentary therapy, where he believes it might be injurious to the animal. This might happen, for example, when the practitioner waves his or her arms around a lot and consequently unnerves the animal. There do exist, however, horse therapy centres where, like the one run in Wicklow, Ireland by Heidi & Philip Sheane, who has an equine vet on site and a mix of complimentary and conventional healing takes place. Reiki is a part of the compliment of therapies and a horse has a tailored programme to match its own needs.

Reiki is practised by a few equine practitioners around Chantilly in much the same way around the UK. It is of most interest in America, where there is a well established, if loose, association of practitioners. The laws covering the use of Reiki in the UK are set in Equine and Animal husbandry EU statutes, and similar ones exist in the USA. However, there are no uniform practitioner training requirements and almost anyone can set themselves up as a Reiki practitioner. Whether you believe in the Chi energy transfer explanation for the apparent success of this technique or whether you feel there are other explanations including the setting of an animal at ease and reducing stress will determine which kind of person you employ, if any.  A Reiki practitioner with a comprehensive racing yard understanding can provide an angle to animal care which will benefit both horse and owner. A part of the technique is to notice the response of the animal when they are laying on hands and can therefore understand which parts of the animal are ‘taking the healing’. Such feedback has proved effective in assessing day to day practicalities of training such as poorly fitting saddles, rider stance and shoe problems.

Certainly there is mileage in improving horse health by paying them long term physical attention; everyone associated with them will know how much racehorses crave it, and Reiki is an excellent conduit for making a horse feel special. Whether it is the impulsive impartation of healing energy remains to be seen.
 

Reiki - Paul Peacock discovers the ancient Japanese healing method.

Many racing yards are turning to a number of alternative treatments in an attempt to either speed healing times, improve the life styles of individual thoroughbreds or respond to the wishes of owners who themselves have clear ideas and requirements for the care of their animals. A fast growing treatment for racehorses is Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing methodology which is said to date back over 2000 years, but was actually ‘discovered’ by a monk in Victorian times. It involved a combination of Japanese and Christian philosophies – the manipulation of Chi and the laying on of hands.

Only recently has this technique been used with animals, possibly most successfully on equines. Trainers frequently try Reiki for a halting and infrequent period, and there are two reasons for this, according to Beth Luck, an equine Reiki therapist. “If substantial treatment with Reiki takes place, and is successful, the horse can become calmer and in some circumstances loose that winning instinct – it becomes a horse again.” The last words a trainer needs to hear is that a racehorse somehow calms itself in a racing sense. The second reason is the unbelief that the fundamentals behind the process actually work. But there are reasons why, in certain circumstances, thoroughbreds might benefit from the attention of someone trained, or attuned, to Reiki in a racing yard. As we shall see later, Reiki is associated with a calming effect on an agitated animal, and the greatest successes have been achieved where the thoroughbred has become difficult to ride, or is confined to box rest or shows signs of agitation.

It is a source of frustration often repeated by practitioners that they believe an animal needs more attention and or rest than might be actually available in a racing schedule, and consequently the patient is being only partially accommodated and frequently returned to racing too quickly. It would be easy to see that an animal only partially well would fall to injury in training or on the track. But then are the claims of Reiki practitioners valid, after all, every athlete, human or equine will benefit from a lot of rest and attention? Reiki is thought to be connected to the body's magnetic or energy field. Some people say it is the manipulation of the Universal Life Energy and that the ‘patient’ receives energy through the practitioner which puts things right. This energy is sometimes referred to as ‘chi’ and is the same as that which is manipulated by acupuncturists and Oriental massage practitioners.

This is the same so-called energy system as that used in Yoga and other oriental healing techniques. The basic idea is that the energy pervades all living things and is needed in order to put your system in the best possible status so that you can heal yourself. There is said to be a difference between the Reiki energy and all the others forms of chi; it is described as ‘beautiful energy’. The more a practitioner delves into the process the more beauty he or she is said to recognise in the energy. All the other forms of chi are cold in comparison. In Reiki this energy can be received by the laying on of hands or the near contact; the hand being waved or held just above a special point.

Thus the patient can ‘drink in’ energy which allows the body to heal itself. The ‘special points’ are known as Chakras, and the animal is supposed to let the person know which, if any, can be used. It is also important for practitioners to make sure the animal is happy before any administration. The crown Chakra is between the ears and another, called the third eye, just above the line of the eyes. There is another by the throat and yet another by the withers and there is a solar plexus Chakra and a sacral one, with a root one by the rump. Interestingly, all these points happen to be largely where the animal’s centres of lymph nodes. All these points are used by the practitioner, and the training the Reiki practitioner undertakes involves an appreciation of which channel is actually accepting the energy.

The idea of there being an energy involved in the healing process should imply that the animal actually feels something. There are reports of exactly that among people who are able to report their responses. Warmth and tingling are frequently reported during sessions, but there are few if any scientific studies that measure either a temperature rise in tissues or an increased blood flow where the sensation is being reported. Various claims are made for this treatment in humans from the healing of cancers to tempering of moods, and there is a wealth of circumstantial evidence to show the treatment has been to good effect.

But there are equally a large number of claims of fantastic results with horses, particularly where the animal has suffered some trauma or other. The use the non scientific term, ‘puts things right’ about best describes the process of what practitioners believe the ‘energy’ is actually doing. Some practitioners call this chi a spiritual energy to differentiate it from heat or kinetic energy. In short, the energy is said to be something all animals need, but is not measurable in standard scientific terms. Consequently, some practitioners are able to provide treatments from a very great distance, the conduit for this energy being some form of spiritual communication. Simon Earle, who practices what he calls natural horsemanship, had a Reiki practitioner in the yard for some time who worked on the horses, but the results were not discernibly different from the other work in the yard. Lisa Venables of Holistic Horses has used a modified form of Reiki in her yard where animals have been discarded from the racing scene.

She uses a number of techniques, but has an interesting take on Reiki which retains the energetic theory, but could provide an insight into the therapeutic effect of the treatment. She believes that we communicate our state of excitement to horses and the action of Reiki is basically calming. In order to be able to do it in the first place, the practitioner has to be confident and calm, and this is communicated to the animal. A horse that has a problem, and suffers from the stress of the injury or illness and also the stresses of living in a fast paced, modern racing yard, might not heal as well as it could.

The Venables version of Reiki involves bringing the animal to a relaxed state, and once relaxed and at peace, healing has more of a chance of success. This communication of the human’s calm, she believes is an energetic process. This is more likely to mean a proactive understanding between the animal and the human, responding on feedback from the other, and emotional rather than spiritual in essence. This empathetic idea of Reiki is certainly more understandable to Western minds and yet still draws on resources or perception and communication that might be considered ‘alternative’ by many.

The kind of person who is able to communicate in this way might not fit in to the life of modern racing stables, with the fast paced sequence of training and therapies. However, Lisa believes every yard should have one person on the staff able to “communicate” with the animals in such a way. The law regarding Reiki is the same as any complimentary therapy in that it must not be used as frontline treatment. It is an offence not to allow a suitably qualified vet to treat any ailment or injury the animal might develop. It is similarly an offence to diagnose a problem or propose a course of treatment. In short, Reiki can only be administered as an adjunct to treatment, under the supervision of a vet.

The vet is within his remit of care to refuse to allow Reiki, or any complimentary therapy, where he believes it might be injurious to the animal. This might happen, for example, when the practitioner waves his or her arms around a lot and consequently unnerves the animal. There do exist, however, horse therapy centres where, like the one run in Wicklow, Ireland by Heidi & Philip Sheane, who has an equine vet on site and a mix of complimentary and conventional healing takes place. Reiki is a part of the compliment of therapies and a horse has a tailored programme to match its own needs. Reiki is practised by a few equine practitioners around Chantilly in much the same way around the UK.

It is of most interest in America, where there is a well established, if loose, association of practitioners. The laws covering the use of Reiki in the UK are set in Equine and Animal husbandry EU statutes, and similar ones exist in the USA. However, there are no uniform practitioner training requirements and almost anyone can set themselves up as a Reiki practitioner. Whether you believe in the Chi energy transfer explanation for the apparent success of this technique or whether you feel there are other explanations including the setting of an animal at ease and reducing stress will determine which kind of person you employ, if any. A Reiki practitioner with a comprehensive racing yard understanding can provide an angle to animal care which will benefit both horse and owner.

A part of the technique is to notice the response of the animal when they are laying on hands and can therefore understand which parts of the animal are ‘taking the healing’. Such feedback has proved effective in assessing day to day practicalities of training such as poorly fitting saddles, rider stance and shoe problems. Certainly there is mileage in improving horse health by paying them long term physical attention; everyone associated with them will know how much racehorses crave it, and Reiki is an excellent conduit for making a horse feel special. Whether it is the impulsive impartation of healing energy remains to be seen.