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SH

Susanna Hedenborg

Malmö University, Sweden
Horses in riding school activities for toddlers – an interspecies activity
Horses in riding school activities for toddlers – an interspecies activity
Over time, sport has followed a pattern of childification – in which sport clubs increasingly offer activities for (younger) children (Lindroth 1991; Goksøyr 2008). Equestrian sport is one of the biggest sports for children and youth in Scandinavia and childification is seen in riding schools too. When riding schools developed after WW2, their activities were, like other Scandinavian sports, a “Sport for all” activity (Hedenborg 2013). In the beginning, pupils were adults or teenagers. In the 1970’s, an increasing number of children began to ride, yet riding schools did not allow children younger than seven (Thorell 2017). Today toddlers are welcomed in the stable. This change, does not only affect humans, and the aim of this presentation is to analyse riding school activities for toddlers from a perspective acknowledging power relations in interspecies relationships (cf. Coulter 2015). The source material consists of questionnaires, participant observations, observations of websites and interviews. Focus will be on what toddler activities imply for the horses: which horses are used, for how long, how do riding instructors perceive the role of the horse and how is the role of the horse presented on websites.