Abstract: Interaction between rider, horse and equestrian trainer – a challenging puzzle

This thesis examines the complex and challenging relationships between rider, horse and equestrian trainer in the context of teaching horse riding. By the end of last century, people began to question the prevailing view that animals are inferior to humans, and thus a re-examination of existing relationships between humans and animals has been sought. An immediate outcome of this critical undertaking has been the raising of ethical questions regarding the involvement of animals in sports. As part of this, the discipline of sports dressage has been subject to heavy criticism. Today, within both contemporary theoretical discourses and equestrian practices, greater focus is placed on the horse’s own subjectivity, along with its own field of experiences and its own perspective. Due to this, it is possible to index how it is that: traditional equestrian cultures are today in transition.

At least in Europe, the development of teaching in riding has its roots in traditional military discourse, which assumed the horse to be an object rather than a sensitive, feeling animal, and therefore considered the horse to be under the command of the rider. In contradistinction to this view, this thesis begins by assuming that horse riding relies on embodied and “tacit” knowledge, which is achieved through practical experience, and is personal as well as context dependent. Since this kind of knowledge is (in most cases) difficult to completely express in words, it is also difficult to convey. “Equestrian feel” is a part of tacit knowledge and is considered as the most rewarding aspect of equestrian communication. However, teaching in riding has so far focused on riding technique rather than feel. Although horse riding has been taught for hundreds of years, knowledge about the learning situation during riding lessons, as well as about the practical knowledge that skilled trainers and riding teachers use, is sorely lacking.

The main aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the interactions between rider, horse and trainer. What strategies and methods do equestrian trainers use to support the riders’ understanding of, and performance with, their horses? What role is the horse assigned in this form of interaction? This thesis also explores whether there are any visible national or cultural differences related to the practice of rider-horse training. Furthermore, the study as a whole seeks to develop theories of practical knowledge in the practice of teaching riding.

The thesis operates at the intersection between practical knowledge and human-animal/equine studies. My personal experiences both as a rider and a trainer have played an essential role in my capacity as a researcher throughout the study. In order to explore the relationships between rider, horse and trainer, an Aristotelians approach to knowledge has been adopted. Thus the concepts of episteme (theoretical knowledge), techne (technical knowing or art) and phronesis (practical wisdom) have been used. These basic categories have, during the course of writing the four articles comprising this thesis, been supplemented by the work of John Dewey, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Bengt Molander, and Donald Schön. The thesis is based on empirical material collected through observations and in-depth interviews with Polish and Swedish riders and trainers. Ann ethnographic approach serves as the basis for the study’s field work.

The results show that riders have difficulties in describing the role of their horse in interspecies communication. This may reflect a tension between the way riders have historically perceived the role of the horse in equestrian sport as predominantly a tool or instrument, on the one hand, and contemporary attitudes that consider animals as having their own mind and consciousness, on the other. Thus, techne can be seen as the kind of knowledge typifying the longstanding military viewpoint while phronesis might be regarded as the kind of embodied practical knowledge that the rider uses to listen to and try to understand the horse, as suggested for instance in posthumanism and cognitive ethology. Therefore, when the rider works towards a special goal, this is related to techne, while phronesis involves both practical reasoning and moral consideration of what is wise to do in a particular situation, according to which the good action is itself the goal. This could be for instance the rider’s understanding of the relation with each individual horse.

Trainers use their own practical and embodied knowledge to help riders to build a reciprocal communication with their horses, and they try to adapt to each individual rider and situation. Trainers make explicit the “tacit” knowledge of how to understand the relation with the horse by, for example, using metaphors. However, the role of the horse in rider-horse communication has not received much attention during training sessions, showing that the recognition of the horse as a sentient and thinking individual seems not to be built into existing equestrian teaching practices.

Trainers in this study seemed to be adept at dealing with on-the-spot problems during training sessions, using their kinaesthetic empathy. They thus demonstrated phronesis. However, trainers had difficulties to explain why they acted as they did, and thus did not manage to make this “tacit” knowledge explicit to their riders. Results did not reveal any national difference among sport dressage riders, and this points to the strength and coherence of the international horse cultures and traditions of equestrian sport.

In conclusion, there is a need for new teaching strategies in horse riding. More emphasis ought to be placed on equestrian feel and on how riders experience their own as well as their horses’ bodies and minds. As an active part in the communicative process, the horse’s role needs further appreciation within existing teaching programmes. A trainer should be better at recognising the subjects of both rider and horse, and thereby support each individual rider-horse combination’s active process in creating something together (“becoming with”). Moreover, equestrian trainers need to improve their skills to make explicit to the rider what they see and why they choose to give certain instructions, thus contributing to the further development of a rider’s phronesis.

Equestrian cultures are in transition and the traditional systems of training and teaching rider-horse combinations have been challenged. Yet the power of military norms in contemporary practice persists.
The use of horses for sport raises ethical questions, and it might be time for sport riders to seriously re-examine and re-evaluate their own relation with their horses with respect to how this affects the horse as a conscious and sensitive animal. It is the hope that in some way this thesis contributes to improved teaching strategies and methods and thus to promote better welfare for both horse and rider.

Keywords: Equestrian sport, equestrian cultures, practical knowledge, interspecies relationships, ethics, equestrian teaching, equestrian feel, tacit knowledge, phronesis.