December 31, 2023

Episode 18

Horse Girls of Middle-earth with Cait

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Hosts & Guests

Cait

Cait

(she/her) Cait is a self-professed horse girl from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and if you ask her about her horse, she’ll never shut up. Her partner in riding adventures is Rocket, a 24-year-old Paint Horse. Tumblr.

Alicia

Alicia

(she/they) A queer Tolkien scholar and Zelda nerd interested in adaptation, audience reception, and biography.

Grace

Grace

(she/her) An acquirer of books, a queer-rights activist, serves as as the Subscriptions Steward of the Mythopoeic Society, and is a Professional Nerd (okay, technically it’s an unpaid internship).

Leah

Leah

(she/her) Just another weird Tolkien geek living in the Grey Havens (also known as Seattle WA) with two rabbits and far too few books.

Resources

Conferences

Mythopoeic Society OMS 2024: Something Mighty Queer

Organizations

International Gay Rodeo Association

Books

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel. 

War Horse.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. Ed. Christopher Tolkien.

Articles

Deborah Bright, “Horse Crazy.” Horsetales: American Images and Icons 1800-2000.

Natalie Corinne Hansen, “Horse-Crazy Girls: Alternative Embodiments and Socialities”. Beyond Human: From Animality to Transhumanism.

Susana Polo, “Aragorn is absolutely a Horse Girl: But only in the movies”. Polygon.

Presentations

Natalie Corinne Hansen, “Queering the Horse-Crazy Girl (Part II): Ponies, Girls, and Difference“. Thinking Gender Conference.

Websites

Urban Dictionary

“30 Fantasy Books Featuring Dragonriders”. Fanfiaddict.

“Every Horse Movie Ever”. Reddit.

overthinkinglotr, “Ok but the subplot where Aragorn becomes the protagonist of a Horse Girl Movie™ is one of my FAVORITE things to come out of the Two Towers.” The Cinematic Horse. 

eilinelsghost, “People Making Up Horse Canon Is Great Regardless”. 
Media

Shania Twain, “Juanita’.

Orville Peck, “Queen of the Rodeo”.

About This Episode

Friend of the pod Cait Rottler joins Leah, Grace, and Alicia to talk all about horses and the ‘Horse Girl’ character trope. We start out with a look at the overlap between Horse Girls and Queer identity, continue with a quick review of the major tropes of Horse Girl stories (with a detour into the related genre of ‘Dragonrider’ stories), and then celebrate our favorite ‘Horse Girls’ from Middle-earth, including Movie!Aragorn/Viggo Mortensen,  Arwen, Tom Bombadil, Beorn, Glorfindel, and more.

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