Animals are increasingly acknowledged as historical agents. There are calls for more critical approaches that explore how this agency—often shared with humans—is embedded within wider relations of power. This paper responds by employing Critical Theory, particularly the ideas of Jurgen Habermas, to explore how interspecies agency is shaped and constrained by its broader socioeconomic context. Empirical illustrations are drawn from the experiences of Dales ponies and people in the early twentieth century, who found themselves navigating the growing commodification of their shared lifeworld. The findings suggest the outcome of this process of “colonisation” was not inevitable. Rather, just as the demise of the ponies seemed unstoppable, their shared communicative relations re-emerged powerfully during the harsh winter of 1947. The paper asks what this means for our understanding of the apparently irrevocable decline of horsepower and how we might better understand horses’ own experiences of such events and processes.

中文翻译：

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作为种间、集体和嵌入式努力的机构：1916-1950 年英格兰北部的小马和人民

动物越来越被认为是历史代理人。有人呼吁采用更批判性的方法来探索这个通常与人类共享的机构如何嵌入更广泛的权力关系中。本文回应采用批判理论，特别是 Jurgen Habermas 的思想，探讨种间代理如何受到更广泛的社会经济背景的影响和约束。实证插图取材于 20 世纪初戴尔斯小马和人们的经历，他们发现自己在共同生活世界的日益商品化中驾驭。研究结果表明，这一“殖民化”过程的结果并非不可避免。相反，就在小马的消亡似乎势不可挡时，它们共同的交流关系在 1947 年严冬期间强势重新出现。