ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the multiple ways in which the idea of 'the horse' is created, symbolically, discursively and culturally and how those creations are generated, negotiated, and challenged in face-to-face interactions between individual humans and horses. It is concerned with how humans think about horses and how our thoughts impact and create them as particular kinds of animals. The book shows how specific human-horse attachments can form, and how individual horses shape those engagements. It considers tasks shared between horses and their riders; ranging from trail riding to dressage, from jumping to carriage driving. The book discusses ideas about: who horses 'really' are as told through stories told of wild horses in 'nature'; what horses mean to humans and how they influence human meaning-making; and how different stories and meanings can delineate equestrian cultures.
