Bri's successfully defended dissertation research entwines multispecies ethnography and care theory with a sporting lens. Her project, titled "Ride or Die: Reciprocal Care Across Species in American Saddlebred Horse Showing," specifically traces how humans and horses establish reciprocal, multi-dimensional caring relationships, using the Saddlebred equestrian community as her case study. This pageant-driven sport showcases the intelligent, charismatic, high-stepping breed under bright lights and for cheering audiences around the country.

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At its base, the dissertation argues that horses not only have other-than-human personhood, but that even —and perhaps especially—through sport, each equine athlete co-creates a uniquely situated reciprocal care relationship with the variety of human companions they share their lives with. 

 

Each chapter covers a different perspective on horse-human care, beginning with the equine perspective and moving on to human titles like amateur owner/rider, professional trainer, caretaker, veterinarian, and shoer. Every care relationship is defined not only by the individual personalities making up the pair, but these overarching identities and the different structures of power that they convey. Horses and humans also care in different ways based on their community identities, which Bri terms "foundational," "affectionate," and "disaffectionate" care. 

 

Ultimately, all Saddlebred care relationships are shaped by settler-colonial histories, bourgeois respectability, and market-driven exchange of lively equine bodies—the latter resulting in a general condition of precarity for all equine athletes, as well as more specific instances of precarious care conditional on successful performance.   

 

The ending argument is that even amidst these constricting, precarious, potentially exploitative circumstances traditionalized over centuries of sport, individual horses can and do shape their lives as athletes and actively seek out the care relationships that suit them. 

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This project has been graciously funded by the University of Wisconsin - Madison Graduate School, the Department of Anthropology, the Center for Culture, History, & Environment, and the Virginia Horne Henry Fund.