The Relational Horse

Gala Argent, Ph.D. (2011), University of Leicester, is a Lecturer in Animal Studies at Eastern Kentucky University and a trans-disciplinary independent scholar whose publications concern human-equine relationships in the past and present. Jeannette Vaught, Ph.D. (2015), University of Texas at Austin, is a Lecturer in Liberal Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at California State University-Los Angeles. She is a lifelong horsewoman and publishes on science, gender, and horses in the U.S.

Gala Argent Acknowledgements


List of Illustrations


Introduction: Humans and Horses in the Relational Arena

  Gala Argent and Jeannette Vaught



part 1

Relationships, Communication, and Connection

1 Synchrony or Dominance? Equine Social Relations in Feral and Domestic Horses

  Lucy Rees



2 Can You Hear Me (Yet)?—Rhetorical Horses, Trans-Species Communication, and Interpersonal Attunement

  Gala Argent



3 Reining-in the Vital Powers of Horses

  Stephen Smith



4 Ceremony and Psychoanalytic Thought A Theoretical Framework for Exploring Horse-Human Relationships and Connection

  Joseph J. Lancia



part 2

Attributions of Equine Subjectivity and Agency

5 “The Steed Knew Well His Master Was Slain” Human-Horse Relationships in the Age of Heroes—the Scandinavian Iron Age

  Kristin Armstrong Oma



6 Barn Banter An Exploration of Anthropomorphism and ‘Equine-o-morphism’ as Agency

  Dona Lee Davis, Anita Maurstad and Sarah Dean



7 “Horses are Like Babies” Work and Skill in the Care of Racehorses

  Rebecca Richart



part 3

Sex, Gender, and Exploitation

8 Mareitude Misogyny in the Horse World

  Julia Johnson



9 Is it Sex if the Veterinarian Does the Work? The Problem of Pleasure in Multispecies Sexual Labor

  Jeannette Vaught



10 Believing Ginger Revisiting Black Beauty During #MeToo

  Angela Hofstetter



part 4

Personhood, Property, and the Interspecies Family

11 Negotiating Power, Personhood & (In)equality in Elite Horse‐Rider Relationships

  Rachel Hogg



12 How Horses Matter in Eastern Mongolia Cross-Breeding, Gaited Horses and Relationships with the Land on the 21st Century Steppe

  Robin Irvine



13 Horses as Healers Shifting Paradigms and Ethics in Equine Assisted Therapies

  Arieahn Matamonasa Bennett



   Afterword Moving Human-Equine Studies Forward, with Horses

  Jeannette Vaught and Gala Argent



Index