The docile body of horseback riding

In 6^th grade I used to horseback ride. It started from a love of horses and grew to a weekly activity of lessons. I use this example to talk about the docile body. Of the key terms, I feel this is one of the harder ones to specifically nail down and define. However, I’m going to give it a shot. Starting out riding, I knew nothing about the proper ways to ride or treat a horse. However, throughout the year I learned how to key the horse into my movements or tell the animal to walk, trot, canter, gallop, or jump simply by using my body to give signals (squeeze the horse behind the flank, make certain clicking noises, clearly say ‘walk’ etc.) . In time, it grew to a point where I was unconscious of the movements I was making because at a quick decision making rate, I barely had time to register my movements before they were needed to be done (docile body). The horse and I worked together to complete jumping exercises successfully. Looking back now, my lessons throughout the year were, in a way, constructing my body to be a horseback rider. On the other hand, the horse I rode was already trained and socially constructed to react to my promptings in a certain way also. Sure, some of the horse’s actions were more attributed to nature (as in I’d squeeze behind the flank which would activate the muscles as a queue to move). However, some were due to nurture, as in the horse responding to my clicking noises. In the wild, no horse would take that as a queue to get moving faster which means the horse had to be trained to respond in that way. It appears horseback riding for competition is a socially constructed activity, complete with norms and a subculture to accompany it.