By Tara Young

I went on my first horse riding lesson in a long time recently. I found myself looking for a hobby and longing for that type of 'sun on your face, wind on your back freedom' that comes with horse riding. I grew up on a horse so naturally I thought a hobby I was familiar with was a good place to begin.

Let me tell you, it was a workout. Impressed that I still knew what I was doing after 15 or so years but an hour-long lesson, in Margiela riding boots made for streets, not stables, had me walking like a Yellowstone cowboy for three days afterwards.

Once upon a time being called a “horse girl” might have been a derogatory term for girls, or anyone I suppose, with an obsession with horses and a distinctive look that set them apart from the rest; the waist-length hair or French plaits, jodhpurs and boots, very good posture, seemingly blissful in a world that collided somewhere between The Saddle Club, Spirit and My Little Pony.

IMO, the obsession is valid because taking care of a horse, shovelling shit and carting a horse float to pony club and competitions requires an above-average level of commitment from everyone involved, especially when the aforementioned horse girls become teenagers and taste freedom in a different light.

These days the girlies can’t get enough.

With the rise of “trad wives”, cooking videos with soothing voiceovers, chickens and gardening, is this lust for a real Simple Life? Would you be the Y2K, Paris and Nicole version with a Dior Saddle Bag wearing boot-cut denim, chaps, and cowboy boots or the elegant more traditional horse-girl, like the royal family's Zara Tindall in matching tweed and a button up with knee-high boots?

From Kendall Jenner’s nudey Stella McCartney campaign, Bella Hadid’s rodeo getup with a cowboy hat and cute braids, Lana Del Rey’s 2024 country album tease and most recently Beyonce’s album, Country Carter, making room in the country music genre one leather tassel at a time. We have Bianca Jagger's iconic Studio 54 era, Miss Dolly Parton, and of course, the UK rural girls and likes of the British Royal family who elegantly clop around an equestrian arena winning medals and colourful rosettes.