Man’s True Best Friend
After pairing up with their steeds for cross-desert races, mounting their horses for mid-blizzard battles, and charging into the unknown frontiers to explore the world, man and horse have become quite the duo. Horses have aided mankind for centuries, helping humans tame every corner of the planet from atop our favorite animal companion. They’re powerful, they’re resilient, and they’re intelligent creatures that, when well-trained, can do just about anything.
Sarah Maslin Nir, a New York Times journalist and avid horse lover, interviewed with Smithsonian Magazine, saying, “Horses are whatever we make them to be. [In America], horses both symbolize our independence, as in cowboy culture, and in posh racing and show jumping, our class lines.” Mighty, majestic, and downright impressive, horses allow their rider to amplify their own abilities through the sacred human/animal bond that has intertwined humans and horses for millennia. Throughout history, horses have been both a tool and an ally to mankind, but this relationship has warped in modern times—turned sour by the horse-lovers themselves.
Via u/9gag
The fascination with horses and equestrian culture has hardly dwindled in modern times, but they’re not as deeply ingrained in our regular lives as they once were. Technology has progressed, roads have become paved, and horses were gradually replaced as a daily necessity. Now, they’re more commonly seen as pets instead of tools. However, animal companions serve a vital function as well, so it’s not to say that horses don’t matter to humanity anymore. “It’s no wonder our bonds with [pets] feel so deep; we can be vulnerable without fearing judgment,” psychologist Jerffrey Bernstein, Ph. D says. “In a world where even the best human relationships often have strings attached, pets love us with an increasingly rare purity.” Horses in particular, with their enormous size and gentle eyes, have a way of luring a certain type of fan into complete infatuation, which is where our issue arises.
Via u/wild_cactus_tack and streamhorsetv
Stonewalled at a Full Gallop
In the city, horses are a mythical wonder that you can either experience at county fairs or through your phone’s screen. Unfortunately, in recent years, the once-valiant image of horses has been inadvertently slandered online via over-obsession. Seemingly aware (and maybe even proud) of their affliction, horse-obsessed influencers gush over their steeds online, broadcasting strangely intimate relationships with their pets that non-horse people could never understand.
Via u/han.equestrian
So unless someone has personal exposure to real-life horses—either on a farm or on the ranch—it’s hard to disassociate the actual creatures from the image that social media is painting. I’m a city slicker myself and have enjoyed spending a few rare moments with horses in the past. I like to pet their velvety noses, ogle their goofy, clopping hooves, and I appreciate the gentle swish of their tails. However, even as the horse’s enchantment washes over me, I struggle to separate the horse’s fandom from the horse itself. I’ve seen too much horsing around online and it seems that the most obsessive horse-lovers don’t need an actual experience with the creature itself to express their love—they’ve completely lost the plot.
Our deep, intrinsic connection with horses has morphed over the years and as horse exposure dwindles in day-to-day life, their majesty becomes rarer, more idolized, and inherently stranger. People became utterly obsessed, weaving horse culture into their entire psyche, talking about horses and thinking about horses constantly.
Strangely, this perpetual craving for horse-ajacent activities led to the removal of actual horses from their hobbies entirely, thus making horse topics immutable in their everyday lives. You no longer need a stable to house your steed, it can be a plushy horse head on a stick in the corner of your apartment, available to ride whenever you want!
Via u/kht.mansika
Hobby horsing and other out-of-saddle “Horse Girl” hobbies don’t even include actual horses and it haunts the perception of horses in the modern world. Why are people “galloping” on all fours then jumping over homemade three-pole barriers in their living room? When did we decide that mimicking equestrian sports on foot was a good idea? Where did the horses go? Frankly, I understand the intrigue of horse culture, both historically and socially, but for fear of succumbing to the apparent “Horse Girl” derangement myself, I fight any sort of fascination with the beasts that goes deeper than mere admiration. One day you’re on vacation riding a horse for the first time along an empty beach, and the next moment you’re braiding your hair into the mane of a $25,000 palomino—or worse, fantasizing about a would-be horse that doesn’t exist.
Via u/benchmob
Internationally ranked and award winning hobbyhorser Nele Nöhrbaß recently told Rollingstone Magazine that the sport is commonly misconceived as simply acting out a fantasy. Pulling from equestrian experience, hobbyhorse competitors copy the movements of real horse riding and translate that into their own expression from atop a stick with a horse head mounted on the end. As strange as it sounds, it’s even more strange to witness.
Via u/NewsNation
This passionate community of horse-lovers is just expressing their adoration for horses in their own way, but something about a twisted obsession with horses doesn’t sit well. Hobbyhorsing is extremely controversial for many reasons, but the biggest qualm with the sport is that it represents exactly how far humanity has strayed from our original kinship with horse lore.
Neigh-Sayers
Horse girls aren’t all weirdos and they’re not all insane, and many horse-lovers simply love riding their horses. They’re fans of a gallant, wonderful, wholesome creature that the human race has been tied to for 1000s of years—it’s no surprise that this fascination has persisted. However, like all things that go too far, the more obsessive members of the bunch have poisoned the once-unshakably beautiful image of horses.
Like an unsaddled cowboy with his foot caught in the stirrup, horse girls have dragged the legacy of horses through the mud, effectively ruining equestrianisms for the rest of us.
Via u/imageresizer