Until recently, I knew very little about the world of dressage. My main exposure to the sport was through the Olympics, which would roll around every four years and briefly mesmerise me with horses dancing to The Lion King soundtrack. It didn’t hurt, too, that Team GB would typically rake in a cluster of medals each time. Yet beyond this, I knew very little of the sport: how it worked, how it was judged, or how demanding it could be.
In the past couple of weeks, however, all that has changed. You might have figured that out from the headline.
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I had long been fascinated by Red Dead Online’s ‘horse girl community’ – groups of equine enthusiasts drawn to the game by its detailed horse models and animations, rather than all the gun-toting cowboy violence. Groups such as The Rift Trails became known for their massive organised trail rides, with dozens of players joining up to explore the wilderness on their favourite horses. As I saw one player describe it, these groups essentially turned the game into “Barbie Horse Adventures with guns” – a playstyle I imagine Rockstar never truly intended.