ABSTRACT
Science, society and culture all affect how we think about and act towards horses as social agents. But it is not science, society and culture whom we hold at the end of our leadrope. In this chapter, we consider what we might term the ‘micro-level relatings’ between individual humans and horses working together in pairs. After providing a theoretical argument for the formation of attachment bonds between humans and horses, we discuss research analysing the behaviour of horses towards familiar and unfamiliar handlers during groundwork relatings. We raise important questions about how horses – as minded, social agents – might perceive humans, and what they might consider a good relationship with their human.
