Last week, Gisele Bündchen gave fans a look inside her $9 million ranch in Miami. The 7.5-acre grounds featured an infinity pool, tennis and volleyball courts – and an ‘equestrian rink’ featuring 10 horse stalls.
The supermodel described the property as ‘my little ranch with my animals’, stroking the horses and praising the opportunity to spend time outdoors and feel a connection to nature.
Bündchen isn't the only celebrity who’s extolling the virtues of equestrianism. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley recently shared Instagram posts of herself riding horses in the Umbria region of Italy, where she was on holiday with her long-term partner Jason Statham.
The couple stayed at Castello di Reschio, an exclusive estate with its own Teatro Equestre, which is home to a herd of purebred Spanish horses. The model posted a series of stable-chic snapshots, complete with jodhpurs, riding boots and a lot of leather.
It’s far from a new phenomenon. Kendall Jenner and the Hadid sisters are fans too, regularly posting shots and throwbacks frolicking in fields and saddling up in stables. Bella Hadid has even gone a step further and started dating a professional cowboy, Adan Banuelos, with the rodeo-inspired hats and fringed leather chaps to match. Throw Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter into the mix and it’s little wonder everyone’s calling for a Horse Girl summer.
Most of us are ready to submit to the Cowgirlcore catnip, embrace the ranch-meets-riding aesthetic, buy anything rhinestone-studded and enjoy it all with a hearty yee-haw. And why shouldn’t we? But irresistible sartorial appeal aside, there’s something a little uncomfortable about horse riding’s link to the uber-privileged.
FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE
Suffice to say, it’s an expensive hobby. An hour-long private horse riding lesson at London’s Hyde Park Stables costs £145 per hour. Ownership is even more, of course; in the UK, the average price of a horse is between £3,000 and £4,000 (though it could cost far more for a pedigree breed), with all the additional charges for food and equipment easily running into thousands more per year.
There’s validity to the argument that says if you want to ride horses and can afford to, you should be able to. But we might not be so willing to accept celebrities shouting about other markers of wealth.
Take, for example, the financially flashy – not to mention environmentally reckless – trend for posing with a private jet. Kylie Jenner is one of a host of celebrities who faced a backlash for posting this kind of content, when she shared a picture with then-partner Travis Scott on Instagram. The image of the pair on the runway between two private jets with the caption ‘you wanna take mine or yours?’ unsurprisingly attracted barrage of criticism.
More recently, Huntington-Whiteley also shared an image of herself up in the clouds on a private jet. The top comment on the Instagram post reads 'Sorry Rosie I'm unfollowing I don't support this', while another states: 'This post embodies everything that is wrong with society'. Meanwhile, others comment on her horse riding posts (which were posted not long after) focused – rather unfairly – on the model's riding technique.
While horses obviously aren’t as controversial as PJs, they still carry a hefty price tag and are only accessible to an elite group. It seems that we’re willing to overlook this – perhaps because it's a sport, but also because equestrianism somehow implies something more wholesome, more earthily free-spirited, than other comparable activities.
Horses are also more palatable because of their long-standing position in the fashion world. If they’re not frolicking in fields, horse-loving celebrities are posing on them for high-profile campaigns and magazine covers. Brands like Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Hermès are intimately tied to the equestrian aesthetic, and its continued influence – from rodeo jackets at Tom Ford for SS23 to tweed riding jackets at Versace – has cemented its place as a stylish, aspirational symbol of luxury.
This isn’t always universally well-received. Last year, Stella McCartney (famously an animal lover and rights campaigner) tapped Kendall Jenner to front the campaign for her winter ready-to-wear collection – on horseback, of course. Then in March 2024, Bella Hadid posed with a horse for a Vogue Italia shoot. Both attracted criticism as well as praise, with concerns over animal welfare, particularly Bella’s cover shot, in which she’s standing on the horse.
Away from the realm of fashion, it is hard to deny the value of spending time in nature and caring for animals. In a 2021 Instagram post, Bella opened up about her mental health struggles and explained how horse riding had helped. ‘I take time each day to do what makes me feel grounded, getting back on track,’ she wrote in the caption, ‘like riding horses, writing, talking with open-minded people, raising my dog, and just being in nature’.
While we might not all have our own ‘little ranch’ to escape to, there’s undeniable mood-boosting appeal in getting outside – it might just be that it's on foot rather than on horseback.
ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
