Ah, October; a month when the temperature dips, the remaining leaves are red and golden, and back-to-school shopping begins in earnest. (Actually, I guess it really begins in late August for the straight-A-student types, but my mom and I always seemed to find ourselves flinging a few notebooks into a basket at Staples in mid-October, if not later.) What I really craved every year of middle school when school rolled around, however, was something far harder to obtain: horse apparel.
Specifically, I wanted the tan breeches and shiny helmets that seemingly half the girls in my class of uber-preppy Upper East Siders sported as they were whisked off to horse school, or horse camp, or horse class, or whatever real horse girls know to call their interactions with their long-maned besties. I, however, was fated to play Neopets and microwave string cheese after school, as my general lack of interest in outdoor physical activity, and my parents’ lack of interest in paying for my horse access (fair, I now realise), combined to make me an eternal horse girl on the inside. I read all the Black Beauty books, played with toy ponies, and dreamed of freeing the Central Park carriage horses, but I didn’t actually have the equine savvy to walk the walk – or dress the part.
Maybe all this is why I was so delighted to see Bella Hadid stepping out with her new cowboy boyfriend Adan Banuelos; not only is this guy kind of a big deal in the horse world, apparently (he was inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association Riders Hall of Fame in 2017), but he’s also the perfect accessory for someone who loves horse-girl culture but doesn’t actually want to get near a horse (ie me, although it should be noted that Hadid is an expert equestrian).
As Taylor Swift has firmly established through her new romance with NFL star Travis Kelce, it is, quite officially, Big Boy Szn: all the girlies are breaking up with their mean, pale, indie boyfriends who wear a smaller jeans size than they do, and instead opting for enormous hunks of the athletics-pursuing variety. Honestly, whatever floats your boat, but I love this for Bella. Why didn’t it occur to me in my awkward tweendom that I could just lie about having a cowboy boyfriend – or an actual horse, better yet – and rule the horse girls for all eternity? Pink Pony Club forever!
