In critical sport studies, the place of animals has been a relatively minor field of inquiry. Much of this research has addressed animals with regard to gambling, via studies of horse racing. Increasingly, however, "riding the animal studies wave," sport studies researchers are looking more extensively at interspecies relations and taking up topics connected to Posthumanism. In this book, contributors offer the first comprehensive overview of the implications of this new field for sports studies, exploring subjects including the horse-rider relationship, the marketing of professional rodeo, the ethics of the sport of dog agility, and many more.

Introduction 1. Sport, Animals and Society Michelle Gilbert and James Gillett Historical and Evolving Dichotomies 2. Taming the Wild: Rodeo as a Human-Animal Metaphor Arnold Arluke and Robert Bogdan 3. Human Horse Partnerships: Beyond the Dressage Stephen J. Smith 4. The Masters of Nature: Golf, Non-Humans, and Consumer Culture Brad Millington and Brian Wilson Human and Animal Relations 5. "The Horse Has Got to Want to Help": Human-Animal Habituses and Networks in Amateur Show Jumping Kirrilly Thompson and Lynda Birke 6. From Sport to Therapy: The Social Stakes in the Rise of Equine-Assisted Activities Jerome Michalon 7. Taking Teamwork Seriously: The Sport of Dog Agility as an Ethical Model of Cross-Species Companionship Giuliana Lund Ethics and Violence in Sport 8. The Ethics of Interspecies Sports S.P. Morris 9. The Virtue of Compassion: Animals in Sport, Hunting as Sport, and Entertainment Gabriela Tymowski 10. Necroposian Nights: Animal Sport, Civility and the Calgary Stampede Kevin Young and Brittany Gerber Sporting Identities of Human and Animal Athletes 11. A Star is Born to Buck: Animal Celebrity and the Marketing of Professional Rodeo Susan Nance 12. (Dis)Abled Riders and Equestrian Sports Marie Larneby and Susanna Hedenborg 13. Branding Boundaries: Colonial Sporting Identities and the Racialized Body R. Scott Carey, Rob Millington and Carolyn Prouse Future Directions 14. Young Equestrians: The Horse Stable as a Cultural Space Michele Gilbert 15. Embodied Communication: The Poetics and Politics of Riding Natalie Corinne Hansen 16. Communion Without Collision: Animals, Sport and Interspecies Co-Presence Michael Atkinson and Kass Gibson

James Gillett is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster University and is jointly appointed to the Department of Sociology.