Bri's dissertation research combines multispecies ethnography and care theory with a sporting lens. Using the American Saddlebred horse showing community as a case study, she extends the concept of care beyond the human. Her work is informed by three years of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork across the United States, mixed ethological-community methodology, archival research, and an intergenerational connection to the sport. 

The dissertation investigates embodied, reciprocal care bonds that equine athletes and their human companions collaboratively create across species—in uniquely disciplined, affectionate, and/or disaffectionate ways, shaped by the intersectional identities of both species. Bri argues that, despite being a “cared for” domesticated breed facing market-driven precarity in a vestigially colonial, bourgeois, and capitalist equestrian sporting space, Saddlebred horses express their individual personhoods and actively participate in multi-scalar, multi-directional caring practice within their “multispecies herds.” 

Each chapter covers a different perspective on horse-human care, beginning with the mixed ethological-ethnographic equine behavioral perspective and moving on to amateur rider, professional trainer, caretaker, veterinarian, and shoer. These situated identities merge with individual personalities to create unique, complex relationships of reciprocal care. While these relationships can be loving, as is often portrayed in popular media, many simply rely on the "foundational" care tenets to survive the teammate bond—including the frustrations and power imbalances inherent in equestrian sport. Ultimately, individual horses can and do use reciprocal care with their human companions to shape their lives as athletes and actively seek out the 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.

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Articles from this research are being prepared for the Journal of Ecological Anthropology and the new journal Animal History. A book proposal is also in the works.