The Horse’s Tale: Narratives of Caring for/about Horses

Abstract

In this paper, we report on a study of people who keep horses for leisure riding; the study was based on a qualitative (discourse) analysis of written comments made by people keeping horses, focusing on how they care for them and how they describe horse behavior. These commentaries followed participation in an online survey investigating management practices. The responses clustered around two significant themes: the first centered around people's methods of caring for their animal and the dependence of such care upon external influences like human social contexts. The second theme centers on the "life stories" people constructed for their horse, usually to explain aspects of the animal's behavior; in particular, many spoke in terms of a rescue narrative and saw their horses' lives as being much better now than in the animal's (imagined) previous life situation. We argue that decisions about equine well-being are made within specific social communities, which create consensus around particular ideas of what is good for horses (or other animals). To ensure the well-being of animals means taking these communities and their knowledges into account.

Could it be colic? Horse-owner decision making and practices in response to equine colic

“…Owner knowledge and experience with colic developed within a social context (such as that found within a livery yard [25]), and was assimilated from many sources. Other studies have reported that lay sources of information were often the first point of reference for their ponies’ health, rather than the veterinary surgeon [7] and [26].…”

Multispecies leisure: Human-animal interactions in leisure landscapes

“…There is a growing body of work that considers human-equine leisure, and although very different to that between humans and dogs, the relationship between humans and horses is also long, close and complex. Numerous equestrian practices could usefully be considered multispecies leisure, and research in this field covers multiple activities ranging from equestrian tourism (Gilbert & Gillet, 2014;Sigurðardóttir & Helgadóttir, 2015;Buchmann, 2017;Dashper, 2019) to competitive sport (Wipper, 2000;Dashper, 2012;Gilbert & Gillet, 2012) to non-competitive interactions and relationships (Hockenhull et al, 2010;Maurstad et al, 2013;Dashper, 2017a). Human-equine leisure practices and associated experiences can provide hedonistic activities and assist with the emergence and development of meaningful relationships.…”

Multispecies leisure: human-animal interactions in leisure landscapes

“…There is a growing body of work that considers human-equine leisure, and although very different to that between humans and dogs, the relationship between humans and horses is also long, close and complex. Numerous equestrian practices could usefully be considered multispecies leisure, and research in this field covers multiple activities ranging from equestrian tourism (Buchmann, 2017;Dashper, 2019;Gilbert & Gillett, 2014;Sigurðardóttir & Helgadóttir, 2015) to competitive sport (Dashper, 2012;Gilbert & Gillett, 2012;Wipper, 2000) to non-competitive interactions and relationships (Dashper, 2017a;Hockenhull, Birke, & Creighton, 2010;Maurstad, Davis, & Cowles, 2013). Human-equine leisure practices and associated experiences can provide hedonistic activities and assist with the emergence and development of meaningful relationships.…”