Shaving the Beasts: Wild Horses and Ritual in Spain, by John Hartigan, University of Minnesota Press, 2020, 312 pp., ISBN: 978-1-5179-0474-6

The study of human–horse relations has grown significant momentum over the past decade. Lynda Birke and I have argued for the need for the social agency of horses to be recognized – even where research questions are largely anthropocentric (Citation2018). This is important not just to redress a historical objectification of animals across the social and natural sciences, but to advance horse welfare. As one of the few species ridden by humans, the agency and welfare of horses are highly dependent on human interpretations of how horses are thought to relate to one another. This is precisely why horse riding and training frameworks based on misguided frameworks of dominance, leadership, and hierarchy have been so heavily critiqued (ISES, Citation2017).