ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the theoretical framework that underpins the remainder of this book. Drawing on ideas, concepts and findings from a wide range of sources and disciplinary backgrounds, I discuss the main theoretical issues, problems and insights which I build upon in subsequent chapters. As argued in Chapter 1, this study straddles two fields: human-animal studies and sport/leisure studies. Human-horse relationships constitute a form of interspecies interaction, and I begin by discussing research on other human-animal bonds, particularly those between humans and ‘pets’, before turning more specifically to human-horse connections. Thinking seriously about animals, our interactions with them and our responsibilities and duties towards them raises many contentious issues over which scientists, welfarists, anthropologists, sociologists and animal caretakers have long pondered, debated and frequently disagreed. In this chapter I discuss some of those issues that I consider most pertinent to this study of humans and horses: namely, how humans might try and understand the animals with whom we share our lives, agency in human-animal interactions and related questions of anthropomorphism. The final section of this chapter then considers how these insights can inform our understanding of human-horse relationships as embodied social interaction, across species, spatial, sensory and temporal boundaries. The ideas discussed in this chapter are complex and highly debated and no consensus has been reached amongst academics and practitioners. The argument I set out here tries to take in some of this complexity, debate and uncertainty yet at the same time attempts to construct a coherent basis from which to examine interspecies relationships and embodied encounters within the horse world.
