Human-Horse Relationships [Hardcover]

This original and insightful book explores how horses can be considered as social actors within shared interspecies networks. It examines what we know about how horses understand us and how we perceive them, as well as the implications of actively recognising other animals as actors within shared social lives. This book explores how interspecies relationships work, using a variety of examples to demonstrate how horses and people build social lives. Considering horses as social actors presents new possibilities for improving the quality of animal lives, the human condition and human-horse relations.

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Part One: Introducing Horse-Human Relationships

Chapter One: Equine co-travellers

Chapter Two: Animals as social actors: Relations, action and agency

Part Two: Thinking Horses: How Humans Set the Context

Chapter Three: Natural Horses

Chapter Four: Symbolic Horses

Chapter Five: Equestrian Cultures

Part Three: Meeting Horses: Moving Together

Chapter Six: Choreographies

Chapter Seven: Moving with Motive

Part Four: Acting on Equine Agency

Chapter Eight: Agency Matters

Chapter Nine: Agency, Action and Horses: Unstable Relations

Bibliography

Lynda Birke is Visiting Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Chester, UK. From a background in natural sciences (specialising in ethology), she later focused more on interdisciplinary research in feminist studies and human-animal studies. But more importantly, horselsS