A recent letter to the Lexington Herald-Leader offered a novel way to reduce the number of breakdowns at the race track. The writer, a self-styled "horse communicator," suggested that he can detect a horse’s injuries up to two weeks before the nature and site of the injury become apparent to a veterinarian. Utilization of this skill, the writer said, would allow sore or injured horses to be held out of races, presumably reducing the number of horses that break down during competition.

I grew up showing American Saddlebreds, and our trainer had an uncanny ability to know when one of our horses was ill. Albert would walk down the barn aisle, looking into each stall, and every now and then announce that "King of Diamonds has a fever," or "Somethin’ Special is a little off today." Maybe he was communicating with the horses, but my guess is that he was simply relying on a lifetime of experience as a trainer to pick up subtle signals that were lost on me.

Whether people can actually communicate with horses is not the point, though. The question is whether offering that service to horse owners, either for free or for pay, violates any laws. The answer, perhaps surprisingly, may be "yes."

Each state has on its books a veterinary practice act that defines the practice of veterinary medicine by listing procedures and techniques that require a veterinary license. Each veterinary practice act is unique, but there are many similarities. I reviewed the laws of all 50 states for "State Regulation of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Therapies: Defining the Practice of Veterinary Medicine in the 21st Century," an article that appeared in the inaugural issue of the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Law. One of the common factors in all of the practice acts was defining the practice of veterinary medicine to include the diagnosis, treatment, relief, or prevention of any animal disease, defect, or injury. This definition includes traditional veterinary therapies, as well as massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, ultrasound, and more esoteric complementary and alternative therapies