Views From the Saddle: Empathy and Romanticization in Oral Narrative and Multispecies Communication

Abstract

In the summer of 2023, I traveled to Wyoming to conduct fieldwork while working on a dude ranch as a wrangler. The research I conducted had two particular focuses: the learned narratives that wranglers shared with guests while on the trail, and multispecies communication between humans and horses. These two aspects rest on a common thread of empathy and romanticization, while separately being framed by theoretical concepts such as ideology, anthropocentrism, sanitization, performance, and register. The overall experience given to the guests presented a sanitized idea of the American West and its history, and human-horse communication. This sanitization leads to a romanticized view of these experiences, glossing over the true complexities that surround the area and multispecies communication. The concept of empathy comes up when examining language used by the wranglers and multispecies communication. Language can be used to promote social bonds, which in turn can generate feelings of empathy amongst users. Further, the basis of human-horse communication rests on trust, and with that comes the ability to empathize across species. Various examples demonstrate the true complexities involved with multispecies communication and illustrate the depth of the relationship between a horse and its rider. This point, used in conjunction with other examples and frameworks, is used to combat anthropocentric ideas, and expand ideologies regarding language.