Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Contexts

This edited volume demonstrates the broader socio-cultural context for individual human-horse relations and equestrian practices by documenting the international value of equines; socially, culturally, as subjects of academic study and as drivers of public policy. It broadens our understanding of the importance of horses to humans by providing case studies from an unprecedented diversity of cultures. The volume is grounded in the contention that the changing status of equines reveals - and moves us to reflect on - important material and symbolic societal transformations ushered in by (post)modernity which affect local and global contexts alike.

Through a detailed consideration of the social relations and cultural dimensions of equestrian practices across several continents, this volume provides readers with an understanding of the ways in which interactions with horses provide global connectivity with localized identities, and vice versa. It further discusses new frontiers in the research on and practice of equestrianism, framed against global megatrends and local micro-trends.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Beasts and Beauties of Proliferating Burdens & Benefits in Local and Global arenas Miriam Adelman and Kirrilly Thompson.- Part 1. Gender.- Chapter 2. The Impact on Horse Keeping Practices Wrought by the Feminization of the Leisure Horse Sector: An Australia Study with Global Significance; Sandra Burr/Australia. Chapter 3. Men Riding Horses. Rethinking a Cowboy Tradition in Northwest Mexico; Oscar Hernandez-Hernandez/México.- Chapter 4. Women Riders in the Moroccan Fantasia; Abderrahim Bourkia/Morocco.- Chapter 5. Sidesaddle Spins, ‘Escaramuzas Charras’ and their Horses: Mexican Horsewomen in the Gender Machine; Ana Cristina Ramírez Barreto.- Chapter 6. Gender and Equestrian Activities: Women and Horse Riding in Iranian History; Ladan Rabari.- Chapter 7. Global Equestrian Trends in Local Context:  Where Are All the Women in Doma Vaquera Competitions in Southern Spain?; Kirrily Thompson. Part 2.  Work, Industry and Markets.- Chapter 8. Making Sense of the New Equine Industry: Case Finland; Nora Brandt, Kjell Andersson and Erland Eklund.- Chapter 9. Ground Zero”: Notes on the New Chinese Leisure Horse Industry; Susanna Forrest.- Chapter 10. Seu Lazer é Meu Trabalho! Stable Workers in Brazil: Experiences, Skills and Labor Conditions; Miriam Adelman and Tiemi Costa.- Chapter 11. The Aging of Canadian Equestrian Sport; James Gillett and Darla Nichiporuk.- Chapter 12. Socio-Cultural Changes in Canadian Equestrian Sport; Michelle Gilbert.- Part 3. Cultures and Identities.- Chapter 13. Can Traditional Equestrian Cultures be Regenerated through Leisure?  The Case of France; Sylvine Pickle-Chevalier.- Chapter 14. Fantasia: Traditional Equestrianism as Heritage Tourism in Morocco; Gwyneth Talley.- Chapter 15. National Treasure: Nationalistic Representations of the Finnhorse in Trotting Championships; Karen Dalke and Riitta-Marja Leinonen.- Chapter 16. The Transnational Image of the Spanish Horse in Leisure Horse Trade; Nora Schuurman.- Chapter 17. Horse-Riding(s): Forms of Practice and Social Representations in France; Patrice Regnier.- Chapter 18. Horses and Horsemanship in Poland: An Overview; Marek W. Kozak.- Chapter 19. Race Politics; Sandra Swart.- Epilogue.- Chapter 20. Furthering the Agenda for Research on the Humans and Animals in Eque-Cultures; Kirrilly Thompson and Miriam Adelman.

Dr. Miriam Adelman is a Professor of Sociology and teaches in the Graduate Programs in Sociology and Literary Studies at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil.  She has been involved in sociological research on the Brazilian equestrian world since 1995, focusing largely but not exclusively on gender issues therein.  She is co-editor of an earlier  Springer volume on equestrian practice, Riding around the World:  Gender in Equestrian Sport (Adelman and Knijnik, eds., 2013).   A longtime fan of the American Quarter Horse, she has recently shifted her favors, in light  of new encounters with the southern Brazilian Cavalo Crioulo.

Dr. Kirrilly Thompson is an Associate Professor at Central Queensland University’s Appleton Institute. She has conducted ethnographic research on human-horse relations and equestrian cultures since 2000. With interests in animal attachment, risk perception, and behavior change, Kirrilly has researched mounted bullfighting in Spain, showjumping in Europe and Eventing in Australia. In 2015, Kirrilly was one of ABC Radio National’s Top 5 Science Communicators Under 40. She lives in the locale of South Australia where she practices the global sport of dressage on a mare created from frozen semen imported from Germany.

Drs. Adelman and Thompson collaborated previously on the book ‘Gender and Equestrian Sport:  Riding Around the World’ (2013).