Five Times Taylor Swift Embraced Her Inner Horse Girl

Jess Bowers, Comments Off on Five Times Taylor Swift Embraced Her Inner Horse Girl
Although she isn’t the barn rat that some of her colleagues are, Taylor Swift still has a love of horses. In fact, that passion tends to creep in to some of her fashion and artistic choices.  Check out these five times Swift let her inner horse girl shine. 

Unlike her more obviously equine-obsessed peers Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift isn’t much of a barn rat. As she told Top Billing in 2014, “I don’t think I have any skill left in horseback riding, because I had to break it to my mom when I was about 12, I was like ‘Mom, I’m sorry, but…I don’t love riding as much as you do. I want to write songs and play guitar and I want that to take up all my time, I’m sorry. I don’t want to go to the barn anymore.’ Because I love horses, I love the animals, but I didn’t necessarily want to go to horse shows—that wasn’t where I was competitive. But I was very competitive with music.”

Despite hanging up her half-chaps long ago, Swift’s self-professed passion for horses has nevertheless manifested itself in surprising and stylish ways over her decades-long career. With the Eras Tour slowly lurching toward your favorite cities, dressage riders across America practicing freestyles to TS medleys, and barn aisles everywhere refilling with excited Swiftie/equestrians on summer break, it feels like the perfect night to reminisce about five times Taylor Swift fully embraced her inner horse girl.

1. 2014: Taylor Swift Becomes A Pegacorn

Paying homage to a doodle she and Jimmy Fallon made on The Tonight Show earlier that year, Taylor Swift spent Halloween 2014 dressed as a winged unicorn, which she correctly identified as a “pegacorn” whenever anyone asked. While fielding interviewers’ questions at NPR, Swift wore a cozy white onesie, feathered wings, a horned headpiece, and a lion-like unicorn’s tail identical to those in the famous 16th century “Unicorn Tapestries,” on display at her beloved New York City’s Metropolitan Museum (I see you, girl). Swift’s costume embodied the fairytale dreams of her elementary-aged fans nationwide while showing off what she might have worn to Bronycon.

2. 2014: Riding Andalusians in the “Blank Space” Video

The Joseph Kahn-directed video for “Blank Space,” one of Swift’s biggest hits off 1989, prominently featured Andalusian geldings Chico and Paco, who were trailered in from Spring Fever Farm in Mt. Airy, Maryland to New York for Swift and her co-star, Sean O’Pry to ride. And her EQ isn’t half bad! Diana Beuchert, the horses’ owner, told Horse Illustrated: “I know Chico fell in love with Taylor Swift while she rode him up and down the driveway, because she kept petting him and speaking softly to him. He would watch her walk away each time she left the set, until he couldn’t see her anymore.” Chico was so down bad for the pop icon, he even let Swift imitate a Craigslist sales ad by standing on his back wearing sunglasses.

3. 2015: Equestrian Couture On A Whole Foods Run

Perhaps inspired by her ride on Chico, it’s hard to forget the over-the-top hunt-inspired ensemble Swift sported on a Starbucks/Whole Foods run in New York City during her 1989 era. Donning a red peacoat worthy of a George Stubbs painting, a pair of tan jodhpurs, and field boots with heels far too high to be stirrup-safe, Tay-Tay (or her stylist, let’s be real) even found a cute black non-ASTM compliant cap to top off her look. I love how cosplay-adjacent this outfit is—TS looks like she’s auditioning to be guest bugler at the Kentucky Derby, but she’s just out there grabbing a latte and some organic cheese. Stars—they’re just like us!

4. 2017: Astride A Cyberpunk Steed in the “Ready For It? Video

In the music video for “Ready For It?” the first track off 2017’s Reputation, Hot Topic Taylor prowls a postmodern urban landscape until she encounters Angelic Cyborg Taylor, who sits astride a white horse (Chico? Is that you, buddy?) while spiky futuristic armor plating ripples across its body.

Then, despite being about as “ready for it” as a horse could possibly be, Swift’s steed disappears off-screen, playing no role whatsoever in the final showdown between the two Taylors. I’m not sure what’s going on here. Either director Joseph Kahn considers white horses a striking motif, since he also used them in “Blank Space,” or he’s mad he didn’t get to direct “White Horse” because that video doesn’t even have any white horses in it, or there’s some other secret meaning here that the Swifties have yet to decipher.

5. 2023: Trotting Out in Stella McCartney

During the promo cycle for Midnights, the fashion world went mildly wild when Swift was spotted wearing an oversized rugby shirt…as a dress! Far more interesting, however, is the massive golden horseshoe crest embroidered on her shirt, and the cognac tall boots (heels still too high, girl!) that completed her outfit. From the fall collection of Swift squadmate and lifelong horse lover Stella McCartney, the piece is more of a casual nod to their shared love of the species than her 2015 hunt coat ensemble. All this look needs are some breeches and a belt to take Taylor from the bar to the barn—but I keep forgetting she doesn’t want to go to the barn. Maybe she’ll change her mind if Chico’s there?

 

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Jess Bowers lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she rides Haflingers. Her debut collection of horse fiction, Horse Show, is out now from Santa Fe Writers Project. Find her at www.jessbowers.org or on Twitter/X @prettyminotaur.