Humans and horses have – for around the last six thousand years – developed alongside one another, and whilst today many horses worldwide are utilitarian workers (e.g. transport, farming), other horses have the ‘job’ of being co-athletes. Furtardo and colleagues (2021) have explicitly explored welfare issues in terms of how happy is the horse athlete… and remind us how important it is to be engaged in how we humans produce their world.
Conflicting priorities of the different stakeholders, the demands of competition and the needs of the horse may result in compromised welfare
Furtado et al (2021)
Humans get to determine the nature of horse sport and the lives of horses participating. Ahead of the Paris Olympics, I wrote a short piece that was shared by my employer, the College of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham. This was an opportunity for me to engage in what is a much broader debate about horse sports, welfare, and well-being (some links in the piece expand on this).
Interspecies Insights 