Performances of Human–Animal Expertise Challenged by Equine Counterperformance

Everyday practices such as training horses may considerably affect interspecies interaction and care within horse–human relationships. In this chapter, we explore the role of equine agency in human performances of expertise in the context of ‘Natural Horsemanship’. Using commercially available horse training videos as research material, we analyse the emergence of what we call animal counterperformance. We pay special attention to the potential of animal counteractivity to become counterperformance and to either subvert or enhance the performance of human expertise. In doing so, we examine the contingency of the spatial context, the performance of the trainer, and the agency of the horse. Our analysis shows how the practice of horse training becomes performative of human–animal relationships, interspecies care, and the culturally constructed ideas of animality and the human–animal boundary. More generally, the chapter sheds light on the unstable and ‘risky’ nature of human–animal relationships.