The Importance of Horses in Girls' Relationships

The author of this book talks about how girls use their relationship with horses to navigate the normalization that they face when it comes to gender. She kind of builds on Foucault's concept of normalization, which is the idea that a subject is constructed through a bunch of like social powers. But I do think like to be fair, riding a horse isn't intuitively girly like especially Western riding. Like there's dirt like your legs do have to be spread. You might have to wear pants. This is why in a lot of ways it contradicts like the normative expectations of girls and like allows them this like socially acceptable way to defy all these things and build their confidence.