ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the human-horse relationship in the context of cohabitation in rural settings of central and eastern Finland in the nineteenth century from the perspective of cultural anthropology and animal agency. Natural environment, living conditions, and day-to-day subsistence affect people's worldview and how they interpret their surroundings and fellow beings. The swidden cultivators lived in remote villages in the boreal forests. This helped to preserve a worldview that was a combination of local ancient religion and Christianity. The practice of humans and animals sharing the house in winter was typical in eastern and central Finland. The time horses spent inside depended on the weather and the need for care. The idea of horse agency is twofold in the sense that it is something horses possess as intelligent, social animals and, on the other hand, something that can be allowed for them by humans, depending on human ideas of horses' abilities.
