Horse Girls: Crazy or Confident?
In our second post for Stories from the Wilderness, I want to talk about this idea of a “horse girl”. Ok, STOP RIGHT THERE. What did you think of when you read that? What were the first few words, ideas, or people that popped into your head? Were they generally negative or positive?
I’m going to be perfectly honest: the first few things that pop into my head when I hear the term “horse girl” are crazy, spoiled, and out of touch with reality. In my mind, the phrase often holds a negative connotation and I know I’m not alone in my thinking. This has been bothering me lately because we SHOULD associate horse girls with traits like independence, strength, and confidence. We horse people are all of these things because we have to be around horses and these often also translate to our non-horse lives. So why is it that when I think of my female horse friends, I think of some of the most incredible women I’ve ever met but when someone calls me a horse girl I’m slightly offended?
Let’s start with this: what is a horse girl? I was curious what the internet world thought so I did a quick google search and discovered the following:
“A girl who wears t-shirts with horses on them and tapered denim pants, has really long hair in which they braid and fasten with a scrunchie in the back of their head, will "gallop" on the track during gym class…” - Urban Dictionary definition
“If someone's life revolves around horses, they are a horse girl” - Popbuzz
So, basically, a girl who lives and breathes horses and is maybe a little…odd. During my “research” I also discovered the popular internet trend #horsegirlenergy , which I still don’t fully understand but seems to embody someone (horse lover or not) who is happily clueless about the world. I was surprised that my google search of “horse girl personality traits” didn’t turn up anything indicative of the stereotype I’d known since recognizing in middle school that I should keep my affection for horses on the down-low. In high school, I hardly talked about horses and riding with my non-horse friends because I had a concrete notion that it would make me appear uncool. Were my teenage fears unfounded? Was I the only one who thought this way?
Examples of #horsegirlenergy tweets
I needed reassurance, so I asked Louisa and Caroline and they confirmed, without a shadow of a doubt, my perception of this stereotype. Caroline told us before she started dating her current boyfriend, he had showed her Instagram feed to his friend and he said, “Oh, dude, you don’t want to date her, she’s a crazy horse girl”. And her exact words when I asked her what first came to mind when she heard the term? Entitled, snobby, psycho, crazy, high maintenance, prissy. Louisa brought up that she has met some truly crazy horse people and that’s true, there are some pretty ‘out there’ horse people (as is true for any sport/hobby/organization/etc.). But why is it that so many of us have this very clear, cynical idea of the “horse girl”?
I actually believe we’re in this strange limbo between the old horse girl and the new horse girl. The old horse girl was the urban dictionary definition, labeled negatively as “weird”. The new horse girl is a popular trend: she’s cool, she’s graceful, she’s powerful (see: Gigi Hadid flaunting her #horsegirlenergy ). But clearly, there is still some disconnect about whether or not horse girls are cool or cringe-y.
I couldn’t help but consider the idea of the horseMAN. Ok, one more time, stop reading and consider what you immediately think when you hear that term.
A therapist’s ad to help “crazy horse girls” vs. the cover of Western Horseman depicting a knowledgeable & composed cowboy
I would bet a lot of you think of the iconic cowboy, a figure that we have historically romanticized. Personally, when I think of a horseman I think of someone with the following traits: strength, composure, confidence, bravery. I think we can all agree that there is a stark difference between how we naturally, and likely subconsciously, view “horse girls” and “horsemen”; while the term horse girl may not be overtly negative, it is not overtly positive in the way the term “horseman” is. My best guess as to why this is true is that it stems from generations of gender inequality. Cowgirls have, relatively speaking, recently become respected and honored, while the idea of the cowboy has been relished for centuries.
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the term horsewoman in all of this, because I think the title is becoming more common and holds very different connotations than that of horse girls. It may, in part, have to do with the very definition of girls vs. women but I believe it is because we are reshaping the antiquated role of women in our modern-day society and specifically, those women who work with horses.
A couple of horsewomen I really look up to :’)
After the wild ride that was 2020, we have all come to realize that the world is changing. In this country alone, we are dealing with racism and acceptance, left vs. right, truth and disinformation, and women with fewer rights than men vs women as leaders of the free world. An example of this change that hits close to home for me is the evolving definition of what it means to be a horse girl. We are living in an influential time in history where we can help shape the world in which we want to live. A small, yet powerful way we can do this is to help change the meaning of “horse girl” to reflect the positive attributes we assimilate with the horsewomen we love and respect. If you are a horse girl, own it, flaunt it, represent us. One of the goals of our project is to encourage our community to defy gender stereotypes, especially young women. At the very least, we can transform the perceptions we have of ourselves and our fellow female equine-lovers to support and encourage what we all know it really means to be a horse girl: strong, confident, compassionate, supportive, downright tough as nails, women.
xoxo, Katherine & the Wild Horse Girls 💕