The exception was on the barn. I rode horses competitively via school, and relished within the haven of the secure. I cherished the formality of competitors clothes: a uniform of stiff, high-waist breeches; dandyish shirts with removable monogrammed collars; tall black boots; and good-looking wool jackets in a bunch of patterns that seemed to have come straight from Savile Row. I additionally adored my education chaps, which I used to be allowed to design myself. Rendered in supple chocolate leather-based, they have been trimmed in tan snakeskin and garnished with an extended fringe that will shimmy as I cantered over jumps. Surrounded by different oddballs and eternally understanding horses, and garbed in my equine apparel, I could possibly be my bizarre, younger, harmless self, freed from ridicule and the peer stress to evolve.
I hadn’t thought of Katie in years. However final month, as I spiraled right into a nostalgia-fueled midlife disaster forward of my fortieth birthday, she returned. My two selves—Katie and Katharine Ok.—met atop slightly Arabian horse whereas cantering via the gardens of France’s Versailles Palace.
Courtesy of Katharine Ok. Zarrella
I’d wish to stress: I’m not a “horse lady,” a moniker for one of many cheesiest, most inauthentic developments in current reminiscence. On Instagram, myriad accounts have urged me to embrace one thing known as Horse Lady Fall. I’d sooner go full Woman Godiva. The time period “horse lady” is centaurian at greatest, infantilizing at worst. I abhor it. As for the style, no precise horse-riding human could be caught lifeless within the scratchy, artificial, old-money-core-meets-athliesure clothes being pushed by viral manufacturers. I guarantee you, ill-fitting checkered breeches with a slippery faux-suede seat are usually not conducive to staying mounted—or escaping saddle sores, for that matter.
Possible impressed by the aforementioned midlife disaster, I’ve just lately returned to driving. I rapidly discovered that equestrian model has develop into nearly unrecognizable during the last 18 years. On my first day again within the saddle, in an try to show I used to be a “actual” horse individual (and never a “horse lady”), I bragged to my new coach about my strong former driving wardrobe. He advised me I might “burn all of it.” (Ouch.) As we speak’s driving wares, he advised me, are available in breathable, high-performance technical materials which can be higher suited to motion than their inflexible predecessors. I did no such factor, however I did get pleasure from delving into the brand new world of driving garments. Largely. I’m utterly confused by the crystal-studded breeches and helmets, and the lacy present shirts befitting determine skaters or Vegas brides, which have develop into perplexingly fashionable. However because of my new equestrian buddy, Florent, I found the French model Dada, whose high-waist breeches and chic collared shirts are a contemporary, less-sweat-inducing tackle the traditionalism and clear, traditional simplicity that Katie so cherished.
