*NEED CLARIFICATION EAS (HEIR) category Question : Sir Peter O'Sullevan Trust - *Nigel can we offer a prize of £500 to each of the category winners (ie under 18 and over 18 to the HEIR organisation their horse is based at? Win £500 for the HEIR organisation Win a photography shoot (for winner) Voucher for a session at EAS centre at HEIR organisation *(Anna can we clarify this please ?) *Other goodies TBC for winner / centre (eg ought the NAF prize be to the winner of community category or to EAS centre ? National Racehorse Week Category (Community Category) 1 prize of 2 x BCD 2024 tickets *1 prize of NAF bundle worth £500 (this can be tailored to the winner’s needs)* see above note 1 x photography shoot

EAS category (HEIR) Geographical location HEIR - list of centres Link to HEIR Register Link to Sir Peter O'Sullevan Trust website Age : how do we request proof of age ? GDPR compliance ? Gabi would you have experience here ? useful link https://www.jarrang.com/blog/a-practical-guide-to-gdpr-and-email-marketing-part-4-competitions-giveaways-growing-your-list/ Community Category / National Racehorse Week 56 Centres (list please) Link to the NRW site Tickets - dates, type of ticket, how to obtain, named ? Or they can gift ? Photo shoot : need to set parameters and dates for this Link to NAF ? Dates Entries open : Entries close : Announcement : When prize will be received : Number of entries : One entry per entrant for each category Anything else we need to consider ? Eg for NRW ... Entry conditions - complete short feedback / research Suggest no more than three short radio button responses plus a box they can type up to a certain number of words to answer an open question, then their submission for the essay competition ? Any other points to consider ?

The competition has two age groups: Under 18’s and over 18’s Your piece of writing should be no more than 500 words long and can be in any written format (or by video or voice transcription if appropriate). Entries can be emailed to media@racingtorelate.org

Deadline for submission for both age groups is DATE 2023. The entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts and winners will be announced by a very special guest judge on DATE via the Racing to Relate social media channels.

As well as highlighting the incredible work Thoroughbred horses do to help and support us in EAS and in the Community, there are also some very special prizes to be won, including goodies for the winning authors, a prize for the HEIR registered centre your horse is based at, *plus a voucher for you to use at an EAS centre of your choice. For more information don't hesitate to contact us at media@racingtorelate.org

We would like you to share your story of your favourite Thoroughbred in a HEIR registered EAS organisation and tell us how your chosen horse has impacted your life.

Racing To Relate was born of a shared passion to help former racehorses to help people, and we had SO many questions! Setting up as an official charity, we faced many external questions too...what is the scientific evidence-base for public benefit of 'equine assisted therapy' never mind with a Thoroughbred off the track? It quickly became clear that research was going to be vital for us to make a meaningful impact. Little did we know how valuable an evidence-based approach would become to the open hearts and minds of such a rich cross sectoral collaboration as the one we have developed today. More about that here. With the help of some brilliant minds, we put together a hefty bibliography of abstracts, referenced articles by academics across the globe and submitted them to the Charity Commission. Almost a year later we successfully established our charity with a good deal more insight into the challenges that lay ahead.

As a charity concerned with the long-term welfare of former racehorses and positive relationships with humans, we found a marked gap in research from the horses' perspective, the welfare of equines in equine assisted services and certainly of former racehorses in this sphere.

What does that look like? What does it look like at the moment and how could it look going forward? How can we encourage others to support us in supporting former racehorses in this work? What roles do former racehorses have in this sphere, and what is the extent of this? We needed to ask if equine assisted services were good for the horse as well as the humans. How do you choose a horse for equine assisted activities? How would you select a Thoroughbred for these roles? How do you measure their welfare? What training or re-training might they require? What are other peoples’ experiences with Thoroughbreds in this context?

Amidst a time of much uncertainty, a world rocked by the COVID pandemic, we were incredibly fortunate to begin a collaborative PhD research project with the University of Bristol, which was very kindly funded by the John Pearce Foundation to find the answers.

It is really difficult to neatly frame exactly what equine assisted 'therapy' is or isn't, and the benefits thereof to human or horse. As we found out, there are significant gaps and obstacles to scientific rigour concerning the benefits to humans of a such an increasingly popular sector, one as wide and varied as the sea of terminology used to describe it. Challenge enough for potential prescribers, funders and insurers to distinguish categories and methods of delivery let alone impact for a field of activity that for the Charity Commission in the United Kingdom, comes under the auspices of 'Complementary and Alternative Medicine' (CAM). "CAM organisations that claim to cure a condition must be able to provide appropriate scientifically-based evidence for their claims. CAM organisations that work to provide comfort and relief to patients, rather than claiming to cure or treat a disease, may be able to rely on other types of evidence, such as reports by patients, or observational studies based on patient responses, to demonstrate their public benefit. The outcome of the review will primarily affect new applicants to the register." You can read more about this in the Charity Commission Annual Review 2018-1019 (at page 24 )

We identified a specific and recognised need clearly expressed by racing authorities and official aftercare bodies nationally and internationally for a robust evidence-based approach to transitioning and re-training former racehorses to ensure a better understanding of and connection with equine assisted services.