Celebrity Kids Who Love Horses
We all seem to have that one horse girl in our lives, but it turns out you know of quite a few more horse-obsessed people than you might think thanks to these celebrity kids.
Queen Elizabeth passed on her love for the gentle giants to her only daughter, Princess Anne, who went on to compete in the 1976 Olympics. Her own daughter, Zara Tindall, would do the same in 2012.
Thomas Rhett is experiencing the opposite effect through his daughters. Rather than him imparting an equestrian obsession on his girls, Willa, Ada, and Lennon’s love for horses is inspiring the country singer to overcome his lifelong fear of the large animals.
And while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a budding equestrian on his hands in daughter Jasmine, Bill and Melinda Gates’ daughter Jennifer has made a name for herself as a professional rider — all while studying for medical school at Mount Sinai. No big deal.
Whether they’re just picking up the reins like Serena Williams’ daughter Olympia, have grown their childhood passion into a professional equestrian career like Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica, or simply enjoy riding for fun like Caitlyn and Kris Jenner’s daughter Kendall, the following celebrity kids are absolutely obsessed with sitting in the saddle.
A version of this article was originally published in March 2023.
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Princess Charlotte
Princes Charlotte shared a special interest with her late great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. The two royals loved horses. So much so, that the late monarch gifted the daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton a diamond horse brooch. Charlotte famously wore the beautiful piece to the late monarch’s funeral in September 2022.
Eleanor Aoki
In 2023, proud mama Devon Aoki shared a series of photos of her lookalike daughter Eleanor Aoki and her horse Socks at their latest equestrian meet, where Eleanor showed off her first place trophy and many prizes. She shared the sweet photos with the caption reading, “Socks and Eleanor this weekend??.”
Grace Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg can’t help but jokingly bemoan his daughter’s love of horses. During an appearance on The Tonight Show, he told Jimmy Fallon that Grace (b. 2010) has been traveling the world, jumping horses, and “doing her thing.”
“Of course, she picked the most expensive sport possible,” Wahlberg joked.
Expenses aside, it’s clear the Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch singer admires his daughter’s commitment to the sport.
“And she takes so much pride in the little stuff,” he said. “She’s at the barn every day, shoveling poop … she’s up before me.”
Monroe Cannon Carey
Mariah Carey’s daughter Monroe (b. 2011) — who has a twin brother Moroccan and whose father is Nick Cannon — is a horse lover too. In July 2023, Carey shared pictures on Instagram of the tween horseback riding.
Princess Anne
Following in the footsteps of her mother, who was given her first horse at 4 years old, Princess Anne is perhaps the world’s most iconic horse girl — and a seriously accomplished one at that.
The only daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Anne made history in 1976 when she became the first member of the royal family to compete in the Olympics. She even saddled up to ride alongside the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment for the Trooping of the Colour parade in 2019, looking like a total boss while decked out in her royal garb.
Zara Tindall
Just as Queen Elizabeth passed down her love for horses to her daughter, Princess Anne passed the baton to her daughter, Zara Tindall, whose father, Captain Mark Phillips, also competed and medaled in the 1972 and 1988 Olympics. Like her parents, Tindall also competed in the Olympics, bringing home a silver medal for her accomplishments at the 2012 event.
Jasmine Johnson
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s 7-year-old daughter Jasmine is already crushing it in the competitive world of horseback riding. The proud dad shared some sweet snaps on Instagram of the little equestrian at an event in May 2022, during which she won several ribbons.
Johnson wrote, “So proud of our little one and her commitment to putting in the work to achieve her accomplishments ????I love that she has a competitive fire (wonder who she gets that from ???????♂?) but she’s not obsessed with winning.”
He continued, “The quality that I love is that she’s passionate about riding and passionate about animals. As her father, that’s one of qualities that makes me most proud to see her developing — finding her PASSION.”
Vivian Brady
Daughter of horse-obsessed Gisele Bündchen (and iconic NFL quarterback Tom Brady), Vivian Brady shares her mom’s love for all things equestrian. In 2018, the former Victoria’s Secret Angel shared a serene photo on Instagram of her and Vivian riding side by side, calling her daughter her ”little horse lover” in the caption.
Jessica Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica is a professional equestrian whose love for riding began at age 5. She grew up competing as a United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) rider, and in 2021, she was announced as part of the US team to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Springsteen helped to bring home a silver medal and is still competing in various prestigious events today.
Eve Jobs
Steve Jobs’ daughter Eve grew up riding horses, and like Jessica Springsteen, she went on to ride competitively for the USEF while attending college at Stanford. Although she’s pivoted to a career in modeling, she was once considered one of the top-ranked under-25 jumpers in the world and was in contention to compete at the 2020 Olympics before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the event to be postponed.
Jennifer Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates’ eldest daughter, Jennifer, is involved in competitive horseback riding at an international scale — when she’s not busy studying for medical school at Mount Sinai. She began riding when she was 6 years old, and through the years, she’s competed against Jessica Springsteen, Destry Spielberg, and more celebrity horse-riding kids.
Scarlett Stuber
Molly Sims’ daughter Scarlett is joining Dwayne Johnson’s daughter in the latest generation of competitive celebrity horseback riding kiddos.
The model frequently shares photos of her little girl at competitions, including this July 2022 post captioned, “So proud of Scar and Mikey ?? for all of their ribbons at the horse show today ?? I’d drive to the middle of nowhere to watch you ride any day ??”
Olympia Ohanian
Serena Williams’ daughter Olympia is a little horseback rider in the making. In January 2023, a photo of Olympia giving a pony a sweet kiss on the head was posted on her Instagram account (run by Williams and dad Alexis Ohanian), and her riding outfit, complete with equestrian boots and a helmet, made the sight all the cuter.
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has loved horses since she was a child, and she’s hopeful to pass on her passion to her own child, Lyla, as she grows older.
The daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver told PEOPLE in 2021, “I’ve had [my horse] Cinco in my life since I was in middle school, so to be around him now with my daughter made me so happy. Then to be able to have her pet Cinco’s nose and get so excited about it made my heart swell!”
She continued, “It’s really important to me to have the barn be a part of her life as it was such a big and important part of my life. Growing up in Los Angeles, I think it’s important for people, especially kids, to have a place to get dirty, be free and be around animals in open spaces. It was a huge help for me growing up, and I know it will be for her too.”
Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner recalls falling in love with horses around age 3 or 4. When she grew older, she would spend her time after school, as well as her summers, at a horse stable.
She shared in an interview with sister Kourtney Kardashian published on Poosh, “There was a woman that worked in Hidden Hills, and I would go all day long from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. She probably had like 13 to 15 horses, and I would ride every one for her.”
Jenner’s passion for horses followed her into adulthood — the model likened her love of her career to her love for being an equestrian, calling both “an undeniable feeling.”
Mary-Kate Olsen
Although she spends most of her time designing fashionwear for The Row and Elizabeth & James, her and sister Ashley’s clothing brands, Mary-Kate Olsen is also involved in competitive showjumping.
The former child star told HITS of discovering her passion for riding at age 6, “Having horseback riding as an outlet was super important because it allowed me to have another life and outlet outside of work and school. I continued to ride through high school and stopped when I moved to New York.”
Of rediscovering her childhood passion as an adult, Olsen shared, “I came back to the sport because I missed it every day that I wasn’t riding. It was the hardest thing to leave and the hardest thing to come back to.”
Hannah Selleck
Tom Selleck raised his daughter Hannah on a ranch outside of Los Angeles, and her love for horses steadily blossomed into an equestrian career.
Of her riding ambitions as a college student, she told Equestrian Living, “My parents were generous enough to support the riding and keep my good horses while I was in school, but the idea was that I was going to school to prepare for a career that could then support my riding.”
She added, “It was really the first time that I’d been away from the horses for so long, and I wasn’t very fulfilled.” This realization is what drove her to pursue professional riding as a career.
Willa, Ada, & Lennon Akins
Thomas Rhett’s eldest daughters love riding horses so much that their country-singing daddy — who has admitted to being afraid of horses most of his life — bought three gentle giants and is building a stable at home for the girls and his horse-loving wife, Lauren Akins.
The dad of four shared a few sweet photos of his little girls caring for their horses, captioning the April 2022 Instagram post “Kids and horses. Something really special about it.”
The CMA award-winning musician even shared in September 2022 that his Willa’s, Ada’s, and Lennon’s love for the big animals has inspired him to overcome his fear of them.
Rhett posted a video of himself walking a horse on Twitter, writing alongside the clip, “I have been pretty freaked out by horses most of my life. @laur_akins on the other hand grew up around them and now so have our kids. Therefore, I need to get more comfortable around them. Today was the closest I’ve really been to a horse in my adult years and it was incredible.”
Gigi Hadid
Before hanging up the reins to pursue a career in modeling, Gigi Hadid spent her teen years as a competitive horseback rider.
In 2018, the former Victoria’s Secret Angel shared a throwback video on her Instagram of one of her riding events, captioning the post, ??”Some of you asked for more vids of me competing back in the day .. ?? I believe this was my first show on Calypso’s Trendy Lady, maybe my best ever teammate. ? I was about 15.”
She continued, “From here Trendy and I were on the winning West Coast Child/Am Jumper Championship team a couple years later … I rode her til my last show at 18 — right before I started modeling full time.”
Bella Hadid
Like her big sis, Bella Hadid was also involved in competitive horseback riding before her own modeling career took off. She was nationally ranked as a teen and was pursuing a spot on the 2016 US Olympic team before her Lyme disease symptoms caused her to shift her focus to her health.
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