Dr. Samantha Hurn is editor of the NES Journal of Equine Studies and lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Wales, Lampeter. She specializes in Anthrozoology or the comparative study of human interactions with non-human animals in a wide range of cultural contexts.

Her research interests include the different ways in which humans and non-human animals perceive and engage with their environments and each other, and the various forms of indirect, inter-species communication which occur during these interactions. She is also concerned with investigating the ways in which animals are selectively bred in response to specific environmental conditions, or human aesthetic ideals and functional expectations of how an animal should 'perform'.

Sam is the convener of the MA in Anthrozoology at Lampeter, and has published several articles on human-animal interactions, with particular emphasis on horses.

She has been a horse owner for the past 16 years.