Abstract

This paper presents the conceptual framework and preliminary field research on a project on human-horse relatedness in Iceland. The project seeks to extend geographical work on human and non-human relations by exploring the landscapes, practices, knowledges, meanings and affective dimensions of the relationships between horses and people, through a focus on interspecies kinship. This includes addressing the relationships between family histories, horse pedigrees and histories of horse breeding, and how affective relatedness is made in practice in horse breeding, care and riding. The focus on interspecies kinship in Iceland reflects the significance of Icelandic horses to ideas of national origins and heritage, but also to family histories, rural livelihood and contemporary culture. In this work I consider family histories and genealogies of people and horses in Iceland as entangled records of human-animal co-existence and practiced relatedness. Through this distinctive focus on interspecies kinship and use of creative research methods, this project seeks to address the place of horses in national, regional, local and family histories and landscapes, and the affective, embodied and practiced nature of human-horse relationships.