The horse-based enterprise

Horse-based enterprises comprise relatively small-scale horse farms in Sweden, offering services such as tour riding, accommodation (for horses and/or humans) such as a farm stay or bed-and-breakfast, breeding, training and farm shops. All horse farms included in the study are owned or operated by women, mirroring the female domination in this market. Some of the farms are operated as a family business, where (primarily) daughters are working on the farm, as family employees or partners with their^- mothers (Andersson Cederhohn, 2015). Although the study does not have the intention to focus on the actual financial situation of the business, it highlights how the owners talk about and experience the financial situation. A narrative of economic harshness is very common and is typically told in a self-ironic tone: ‘you will not be a millionaire’, or ‘if you want a proper salary, you need another job'. This type of narrative is typically followed by an emphasis on the other values that the business provides.

Passion and practical knowledge

In stories of ‘how it all started’, the owners typically emphasize their own passionate interest for horses. Several of the horse fanners are lifestyle migrants, who have left employment as a teacher, physiotherapist, journalist or marketingmanager and relocated. Some have worked in farm enterprises and have a fanning background. A majority of the horse fanners in this study have a university education, which adds an extra dimension to then story of a working career and lifestyle spurr ed by free will. Then work and the enterprise are clearly framed in the narrative as a voluntary lifestyle choice that has not been chosen out of economic necessity or family tradition.

‘Passion’ is a recurring narrative in the interviews and appears to consist of several dimensions. Foremost, it is a mode of explaining, perhaps legitimating, then^- specific life choice. What may seem, at least on the surface, as economically ¡national is often followed by a lengthy explanation. Several of the women have left successful and, compared with the horse enterprise, economically more viable careers in order to pursue a personal interest and try to make a living out of it. The ‘passion’ dimension also seems to indicate a specific kind of knowledge. It is a type of knowledge or perhaps professionalism that is based on an idea of a practical, emotional, or even intuitive knowledge. The expression of having ‘an eye for horses’ is often used, indicating a type of knowledge earned through genuine interest and practical experience.

susan: This eye. We often talk about that... you need to have an eye for horses. And you need to want to be with them. Caring for them but at the same time be willing to sacrifice them . . . for what you want to achieve. Some horses will lose their abilities as riding horses when you put them in tom' riding but, on the other hand, they will be safer riding horses. .. . Well, you need to accept that this is not only a hobby, and the horses need to be sustainable, they need to last. And then you have to be damn sociable as well.

Susan’s trade-off reasoning may seem instrumental, but it is embedded in a narrative of care, particularly for the horses but also for people - ‘you have to be damn sociable as well’. Furthermore, the caring aspect is part of a professionally -‘having an eye for horses’ - and embedded in a narrative of sustainability. You need to care for them not only for altruistic reasons, but you need them as working comrades as well.

Money-talk and resistance to commodification

A recunent theme in our analysis of both horse and hunting enterprises is the apparent engagement in talking about money and prices. Among the horse fanners this is often expressed through a form of ‘negative’ or ‘dissociating’ talk about money, such as the non-interest in pecuniary matters, as in the introductory qrrote by Emily. Among the horse fanners, it could also take the form of a conspicuous absence of any talk about prices. At fir st glance, this may seem paradoxical, perhaps ¡national, if you are running a business. Nevertheless, the ‘dissociating’ money talk can be a means of highlighting values other than ‘merely’ economic ones. Valuing horses in quantitative, monetary terms is probably something they have to do often in daily business. However, economic valuation is relatively

Deconmiodification 29 absent from the horse fanners' narrative when they talk about the overall values of the enterprise. Maggie puts it like this:

Maggie: To have this feedback, to meet people and see that they really like it here. That is actually much more important than money. . . . And the horses, they have such an incredible value. Both value and value, if you know what I mean. When it becomes too commercial, no . . . that is not how I like it.

interviewer: No?

Maggie: When commercialism takes over in a company like this, then it can go really bad. I have seen examples of that. It could go really wrong, for horses as well as people. So, you have to reach a level where it feels good. I want my horses to have a good life. It is a responsibility. Some of these horses I will never ever sell, never in my entire life, not even if I close down the business,

‘Both value and value, if you know what I mean’. This type of narrative illustrates the ongoing negotiation and balancing work undertaken in the intersection between a commercial and a non-commercial sphere, typical of lifestyle businesses. The non-money interest can be seen as a type of building block for a work ethos and a work identity for the lifestyle entrepreneur. Although this can be interpreted as a symbolic demarcation, it does not necessarily entail an ideological positioning as a non-growth-oriented entrepreneur. Running a horse farm entails a caring ethos - for animals and people - and if you fail in your caring ethos, the outcome will probably be immediate. ‘It can go really wrong’, as Maggie warns.

Favour exchanges in friendship networks

What is quite significant for horse fanning is that it is labour intensive. Horses need to be fed at regular hours, they need to be walked to and from the stable and the paddock, their boxes need to be cleaned and they need daily exercise. The owners are thus dependent on people helping out. Stables that offer accommodation for other people’s horses often have the horse owners visiting on a daily basis to take care of their horses, but there is still a lot of work to be performed by the stable owner. The customers, who own the horses, often perform some form of stable duty, sometimes according to a schedule with a ‘taking turn’ system. Family members help out as well, and they may or may not be formally employed. There are also voluntary workers such as ‘stable girls’ who do not own a horse themselves but are willing to help out and receive free riding in return. Finally, there are also helpers who are labelled ‘friends’, ‘neighbours’ or simply part of the ‘network’.

In total, there is a range of different types of ‘helpers’ who work for free, often based on a system of favour exchanges. The helpers who have a specific interest in horses, such as ‘stable girls’, may be a challenge to the balance of reciprocity, since they sometimes help out more than the stable owner may give in return. As Susan explains: ‘Many people in this business want to do tilings for free, but you cannot accept too much of that’. However, some of these voluntary helpersmay develop their skills with horses, and that provides the opportunity for a more balanced reciprocity. Susan continues: ‘you can often give them what they want, which is knowledge. Knowledge is a reasonable salary . . . and you get help in return’.

However, if the voluntary workers become too skilled, the position becomes reversed and they are giving favours to the stable owners, not the opposite. Hence, the type of payback varies depending on who you are. if yorr are a close friend or more distant, and what type of work you can perform (Andersson Cederhohn & Akerstrorn, 2016). Although favour exchange is a form of informal economic exchange, it is sometimes formalized bhrntly, as one of the horse fanners said: ‘If I scratch your back, you scratch mine’. However, among closer friends, reciprocity is often taken for granted and not articulated as a formal requirement. These are also the situations in which it may become ambiguous, and misunderstandings may become rather emotional (Andersson Cederhohn & Akerstrorn. 2016). Some people are both friends and customers, and the roles may therefore shift according to the situation.

This demonstrates the socially embedded practice of running this type of lifestyle busmess, particularly the type of busmess that requires many helping hands. A large proportion of labour is performed in the form of favour exchanges which, although intertwined in market relationships, constrain market relations. If a customer is a potential friend, and vice versa, as is common in horse fanning, the relationship differs from that in businesses where there is greater separation of the personal and commercial spheres.