Interim Project Description

My research will be conducted in the social sciences and be concerned primarily with human’s relationships with horses and how that influences a human’s relationship with another person. I will be observing horses and participating in riding horses to try and find the most effective way to communicate with them. I will also determine how communication with horses can affect a person’s communication with other people. I will shadow several horse experts to learn and observe their circumstances and relationships with horses. By riding and gaining personal experience I hope to obtain insight on learning better communication skills with horses and learn how this communication with horses may affect my relationship with other people. From observation I expect to find that communication with horses will allow people to communicate more effectively with other people. I also expect to find that communication with a horse will teach patience and allow communication with other people to grow.
For this project I have read books concerning horsemanship, safety, and riding techniques. Mr. Brown has also helped to broaden the Wofford College’s Library collection with books and documentaries on the subject of communication with horses. I intend to use all of these resources in the course of my interim project. I also have had horseback riding experience in the past and I have recently started riding horses again to have extra preparation for this project. I took horse riding lessons throughout my childhood and during my teenage years my parents owned a horse that I gained experience from. I plan to read more articles on how communication with horses can affect communication with other people before I begin this Interim project.
I plan to shadow horse experts to observe and interview them on their relationships with horses and other people. I will take my notes and observations from each expert and compare them to find how horses have affected their communication skills with others. I will also use my notes to compare the ways each expert believes is the most effective to communicate with horses. I will also take my personal reflections from riding and compose a response to my guiding research question. These comparisons and reflections along with additional research will be used to compose the final written report.