Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the question how and why humans makes horses in the double sense of breeding and of shaping horses (and human) bodies in training. And it wants to discuss the possibility and challenges of going to the field together with ones horses.

Paper long abstract:

In the presented research, I seek to understand how humans make horses. This is meant in a double sense: One is the making of horses in breeding, that is in shaping horses bodies and experimenting with color through selection. The second meaning is the making of horses in riding, which I understand as an embodied inter-species practice that is deeply cultured. I explore the question of breeding with regard to one very specific type of horse, namely the Knabstrupper horse originating in Denmark. And I explore the second theme, the shaping of horses' and riders' bodies in riding with regard to the reemergence of the baroque and classical art of riding in Europe, where the Knabstup horse also plays a central role. In the academic art of riding in particular, as it is currently becoming popular among leisure riders, the individual horse is shaped and educated for years in order for it to become a fully 'cultured horse', i.e. a so-called "school" horse.

Based on an exploratory study in Germany and Denmark and on my ongoing preparations for long-term fieldwork in these two countries among Knabstupper breeders and riders of the 'art', I reflect on the challenges of eth(n)ographic research that will not only include the various people and horses who together shape particular Knabstup social worlds but also myself and my two horses going to the field as a 'multi-species research team'.