Competition

Humans and horses interact in a variety of different ways, both ridden and from the ground, as has been discussed in previous chapters. Lots of these activities are undertaken predominantly for fun, relaxation and enjoyment and have no competitive element. Many people in the horse world enjoy just being around horses, caring for them, training them, and hacking out on them. Many horse people do not, therefore, engage in any type of competitive sport yet are still very active, skilful and dedicated in developing and maintaining effective communication and interspecies relationships with their horses. That said, many people within the horse world do also engage with equestrian sport – the competitive aspects of human-horse collaboration. Definitions of sport are highly debated and contested (see Lagaert and Roose, 2014), but for the purposes of this chapter I take ‘sport’, in the context of equestrian sport, to include formal, competitive activities in which horse and rider perform together according to a set of preestablished rules and criteria. Equestrian sport is a popular and diverse sector of the horse world, and includes a wide range of activities. All sorts of different people and horses participate in equestrian sport activities, and competitions attract professional, elite, amateur and leisure riders, depending on the nature of the competition and the level of performance required. Within equestrian sport contexts the horse-rider relationship is tested in public, often subject to external judgement and verification, and accorded a value in relation to competitive performance on any given day. Equestrian sport is, therefore, an important context through which to consider the development and performance of human-horse collaborative relationships. Equestrian sport can also provide a unifying focus within the horse world, based around a shared understanding of equestrian norms, practices and personalities. However, as with any sporting environment, the pressures of competition can also exacerbate any divisions within the horse world and put different stresses on the horserider partnership than within the non-competitive contexts discussed in previous chapters.