Introduction: Horse–Human Relations, Space, and Interspecies Care

Encounters and relationships between humans and horses take place and develop within everyday practices of care. This book focuses on the spaces and practices of caring for horses, investigated through a series of case studies set to highlight different cultural contexts of horse–human relationships. Situated within recent discussions in animal and care geographies, the book approaches the spaces and practices of human–animal care as landscapes of interspecies care. Our specific interest is in the ways in which the multiple encounters and relationships between humans and horses are produced, maintained, understood, and challenged within the mundane spaces and practices of everyday care. We suggest that within the dynamics of interspecies care, these boundaries are contextually enforced and transgressed and, therefore, care appears as a realm in which human–animal relations are contested, negotiated, and redefined.