Horse Girls Don’t Give AF
Horse girl, horse girl energy are in the zeitgeist. It seems the internet has a collective fascination with the “bizarre subculture” surrounding equestrian sports. The first time I heard the phrase uttered by a non-horsey person was in my novel writing class. I introduced my work (a sexy romance set in the show jumping world) and was immediately asked, “are you a horse girl?” When I heard the expression, it zapped me like a lightening bolt: yes, that’s me.
What exactly is a horse girl? I scoured the internet. A horse girl is someone who loves horses, more than anyone loves anything. Horse girls freaking love horses.
How about horse girl energy? This is a term that transcends horses, can be applied to things outside horses. According to this SSENSE piece, horse girl energy is about “embracing your weirdo self, unhinged and unbothered.” In another piece, anyone who is “strong, independent, and passionate about something has horse girl energy.”
As I dove deeper into horse girl subculture, I was fascinated to learn that horse girl isn’t generally a complimentary term. How could anything be wrong with being a horse girl, I wondered? Lots, according to people who identify as “equestrians.” Equestrian is cool, horse girl is cringe. Equestrian is stylish and poised, horse girl is awkward. Equestrians are beautiful, horse girls are not. There’s a whole corner of TikTok dedicated to equestrians proving how equestrian they are, and how horse girl they are not. It seems to relate to internalized misogyny - minimizing girls for being passionate about something that doesn’t relate to men or the male gaze.
You know what’s cool? Having a passion in life. Liking something. Like, really liking something, liking something so much that you don’t need to date someone or buy something to make you happy - you already are happy, because you have horses in your life. Deriving your happiness from yourself rather than external sources gives you a certain power that many people never realize in their lives. It’s just the kind of hobby that horses are - engaging, absorbing, all-consuming.
A lot of people spend their whole lives searching for something they care about as much as horse girls love horses. I think people hate on horse girls because horse girl energy is powerful, and our patriarchal society doesn’t like women, and especially not young girls, to have power. Or, according to reddit, it’s “just another way to put down girls and trivialize their interests and experiences.”
Luckily, we don’t care, As this person on reddit states, “I’ve given up on caring what other people think about how I spend my time and money. I have the confidence I gained from horses to thank for that.” Someone else said, “I'm unapologetically a horse girl, and if that's wrong I don't want to be right.”
I imagine that all “equestrians” are indeed horse girls, if they are honest with themselves. Why else would you choose such a difficult sport? The countless hours in the saddle, the spills, the losing far, far more often than you win? Admit it - you love horses. It’s fine. I mean, I love the fashion, the glitz, and the glamour that accompanies equestrian sport as much as the next person - it’s just that my horse girl energy allows me to embrace ALL the things I like, horse girl AND equestrian.
A horse girl chooses herself over you. Horse girl energy is about doing whatever the fuck you want. And when you do what you want, you’ll find you’re a lot more accepting when other people do what they want.
Let’s all be a little more horse girl.
By Julie Claire. I had a lot of fun writing this piece: it is my manifesto, my raison d’etre. Thanks for reading!