How meeting with the horse may contribute to a balanced life: Co-constructing a project-based leisure

Abstract

This article offers a praxiography of equine-assisted activities, defined as a particular form of project-based leisure. The article stems from a larger study whose main purpose was to work closely with collaborators, equicoaches, and horses, to co-construct activities to support work–life boundary management. The collection of data involved 27 interviews, several focus groups, and approximately 50 hours of participant observation. To make the activities more inclusive, the analysis integrates a diverse group of actors, both human and equine, allowing the authors to gain a better understanding of situated learning mechanisms emerging from multispecies relations. The analysis highlights the role of performative processes and ontological work organized around human–animal relationship building. The authors propose that this study is part of a movement in favor of the coexistence of living beings and that this is a central matter of concern shared by the collaborators involved in this project.

Cet article propose une praxéographie d’activités assistées par les chevaux, définies comme une forme particulière de loisir fondé sur un projet. L’article est issu d’une étude plus vaste qui avait comme principal objectif de travailler étroitement avec des collaborateurs et collaboratrices, des équicoaches et des chevaux, afin de co-construire des activités contribuant à la gestion des rôles de vie. La collecte de données implique 27 entretiens, de nombreux groupes de discussion et environ 50 heures d’observation participante. Afin de rendre les activités plus inclusives, la recherche intègre un groupe diversifié d’acteurs, humains et équins, permettant aux auteurs de mieux comprendre les mécanismes d’apprentissage qui émergent des relations multi-espèces. L’analyse met en évidence le rôle des processus performatifs et du travail ontologique organisés autour de la construction de relations humain-cheval. Nous proposons que cette étude s’inscrive dans un plus large mouvement visant à repenser la coexistence entre les êtres vivants, et que cela soit une préoccupation centrale partagée par les partenaires impliqués dans le projet.

Keywords:

• animal-assisted activities
• equine leisure
• praxiography
• project-based leisure

Mots clés:

• activités assistées par le cheval
• loisir équin
• equicoaching
• praxéographie
• loisir fondé sur un projet

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Jean-Pierre Digard, an expert in animal domestication, argues that the way the human–horse relationship has evolved has been shaped by the services that horses provide to humans, causing the horse’s strength, spirit, speed, and courage to come to symbolize its owner’s superior status (Digard, 1994). Thus, “the horse remains a ‘powerful symbol of man’s power over animals … and the insignia and instrument of man’s power over man” (Digard, 1994, p. 220, translation).

2. The term humanimalia, the title first given to a scientific journal devoted to the study of human–animal relations, was originally invented by Haraway (2008). It signals “historically situated fleshly encounters of people and other animals” (Haraway, 2008, p. 376). The expression “humanimal team” can also be found in intervention contexts, in reference to an intervention team made of an animal and a facilitator; see Michalon (2014).

3. This assertion is consistent with Stebbins’s theoretical framework, which draws a distinction between core and peripheral leisure activities (see Cohen-Gewerc & Stebbins, 2013).

4. Of course, equine leisure activities do not consist of single acts. Through repeated interactions and small rituals (such as grooming), humans and horses can co-create what Brandt (2004) calls a third language, which is different from the language that humans use with each other and the language that horses use with each other. However, to do this requires more time and effort than we could afford our collaborators on this project.

5. This metaphor is based on the premise that when someone’s eye looks into another person’s eye that is like itself, it will see an image of itself (Foucault, 1982/2001).

6. That being said, thrill-seekers may quickly tire of this kind of play activities and find that equestrian sports provide these experiences in a more exciting form – for example, using spears to pop balloons on horseback through the mist of a fog machine.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 435-2020-0862].