Whip & whisper

Abstract

In this essay, I seek to investigate the contours of power and class dynamics in the equestrian world, and look for resonance in the wider world of capitalism and its various crises. I want to examine our desire for classification, for division from nonhuman animals, while considering the connections to broader cultural alienation from nature, from the body, from the other, from the self. Another question I take up is the responsible use of metaphor, and its potential use as both a colonizer and a bridge; I hope to examine this as just one of our many tools of communication, which must also include the body and the breath.