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Animals : an open access journal from MDPI2025; 15(10); 1418; doi: 10.3390/ani15101418

The Role of Horses as Instructional and Diagnostic Partners in Riding Lessons.

Abstract: In many types of embodied skills instruction, the learnables-that is, the local and jointly negotiated foci of instruction-emerge from a combination between a pre-existing lesson plan and the spontaneous interaction between teacher and student. Through the analytical lens of Conversation Analysis, this paper investigates the interspecies instruction setting of horse-riding lessons and shows how here, it is not only the human teachers and learners that determine the emergence of new learnables but also the horses. Horses' actions can initiate new courses of action in a lesson, and horses can thus become interactional partners in the instructional project. Horse-led learnables can be initiated in at least three ways: through horses' displays of mental or physical states that pre-date the instruction sequence; through actions that respond to local contingencies of the instruction sequence; and through actions that respond specifically to the rider's actions. In the last case, their responses become diagnostic of the rider's mistakes. In all three cases, the human participants take their cue from the horse and base new learnables on horses' actions. Human-led learnables can be adjusted, changed, replaced, or abandoned completely in response to horses. The study broadens the emerging field of interspecies pragmatics to include instructional interactions involving the triad of human-human-horse triad.
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Publication Date: 2025-05-14 PubMed ID: 40427295PubMed Central: PMC12108196DOI: 10.3390/ani15101418Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The research investigates the significant role horses play in riding lessons, highlighting how they participate not only as tools for teaching but also aid in initiating new learning processes and diagnosing the rider’s errors.

Understanding the Study

The study is centered around embodied skills instruction in horse-riding lessons. The key learning areas or learnables are factored by:

  • The pre-designed lesson plan
  • The spontaneous interaction that takes place between the teacher and the pupil

Importantly, these learnables are not solely dependent on human interactions but the horses too.

Role of Horses in Instructions

Horses play a significant role in shaping the direction and outcome of the lessons.

  • Horses can initiate new courses of action based on their actions, thus becoming equal partners in instruction.
  • The horses showcase their mental or physical state which informs the instruction sequence.
  • They adjust and respond to the contingities of the instructional sequence, or specifically to the rider’s actions, thus offering real-time feedback.
  • When the horse responses to the rider’s actions, it can diagnose the rider’s mistakes acting as a instantaneous feedback mechanism.

Significance of Horses’ Actions

The human participants utilise the cues from the horses’ behaviour to define the future course of the learnables.

  • Based on horses’ actions, the human participants adjust the learnables.
  • The learnables could be changed, replaced, or even completely abandoned depending on the horses’ responses.

Interspecies Pragmatics

This study emphasizes the field of interspecies pragmatics in the context of instructional interactions. It presents horses as a noteworthy variable in the human-human-horse triad of the learning journey in riding lessons. The actions and responses of the horses are instrumental in determining the direction, content, and execution of the instruction and learning process.

Cite This Article

APA
Szczepek Reed B, Lundesjö Kvart S. (2025). The Role of Horses as Instructional and Diagnostic Partners in Riding Lessons. Animals (Basel), 15(10), 1418. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15101418

Publication

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
ISSN: 2076-2615
NlmUniqueID: 101635614
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Volume: 15
Issue: 10
PII: 1418

Researcher Affiliations

Szczepek Reed, Beatrice
  • School of Education, Communication and Society, King's College London, London SE1 9NH, UK.
Lundesjö Kvart, Susanne
  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.

Grant Funding

  • Approval received from internal OA funding support / King's College London

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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