The Transnational Image of the Spanish Horse in the Leisure Horse Trade

Abstract

Horses have multiple roles as companions and as commodities that are bought and sold, often transnationally, in markets where they are valued according to their ability to respond to the demands of contemporary equestrianism. In this chapter, I explore the interpretations of animals in the international trade in equines across Europe. The focus is on the ways in which the image of a horse breed attached to a national history and culture is presented in the context of international trade. The breed under scrutiny is the Spanish horse, commonly called the Andalusian, or, in the case of specifically registered horses, the PRE. Based on an understanding of animal breeding and training as culturally contextual, the study sheds light on the discursive understandings of horses with a local history in a new transnational context. Discussing the themes of eco-nationalism and exoticism, the study illustrates the process of attaching cultural values to nature and consequently constructing animals as metaphors of a ‘nation’. In embodied encounters with humans, these perceptions are challenged by the need to be able to communicate with the horse. The horse’s history and the ways in which it has learned to interact with humans can then be understood as the horse’s cultural capital.