ABSTRACT
Human knowledge about horses informs interaction and communication between the species. Interviews with riders in Norway and the US show that humans offer horses different treatment, based on different ideas about who horses are. Experts and novices alike disagree about how much dominance horses need in order to be human companions. Some hold the idea of horse subordination high, enacting themselves as authoritative leaders, while others engage in more consultative practices with horses. Horse natures, then, are produced and reproduced in specific cultural practices. Elaborating on the various practices, I also argue that this co-productiveness of culture and nature in shaping horses must be acknowledged. The lack of consensus implies that horses come in many versions, dependent on who their human companions are. A re-thinking, re-talking, and re-doing of cultural practices could lead to fewer versions of horses, thus better understandings of how to be and become as humans and horses together.
