ABSTRACT
Multispecies ethnography is a new field of study that rethinks the diverse and complex kinds of relationships that humans form with non-human animals. Writing extensively about the relationship with human and other animals, Haraway contends that we are companion species, participants in on-going processes of 'becoming with' each other in naturalcultural practices. Speaking more directly to horse-human relationships, Despret holds such entanglements as new articulations of 'with-ness', situations where species domesticate each other, and create new articulations of both speaking and being. A number of studies feature rider and horse as a pair and identify the roles of embodiment and bonding in developing a sense of partnership between horse and rider, a partnership that challenges hegemonic dualisms of horse as nature and human as culture. Grounded with the same footing as horses is also something that riders think affects the horses. Riding is a practice where horse and human bodies communicate through a set of cues and signs.
