By RACHEL P.
Adult Amateur and Founder of Classic Day Equestrian
There’s something no one tells you when you stop riding: that part of you never really goes quiet—it just waits in the wings for when you’re ready again.
I quit sometime during my first year of college. My horse was nearing retirement and I told myself I didn’t have the time, money, or structure to ride seriously. I’ve never been good at doing anything halfway, and I only knew how to do horses in a way that consumed my every waking moment. So I packed up that version of myself and tried not to look back.
I focused on college, then graduate school, then work, and stayed busy enough to believe I had moved on. But over time, the distance from riding started to feel like a growing hole I couldn’t ignore. My life looked good on paper but didn’t have much me in it.
Still, I hesitated. Riding was all-consuming when I was a teenager, and I wasn’t sure I could manage the intensity of my horse obsession again. I also carried a lot of emotional baggage from the years I spent desperately trying to see a path to riding professionally — crying over missed opportunities, always feeling like I was falling short because I didn’t have the right horse to move up, the right financial support, the right circumstances.
After a long late night talk at a bar, I reached out to a few barns to start taking lessons. Two months later, I bought a horse—and started showing in a way I never could as a kid.
And just like that, I was back in it. Not as an afterthought or an escape, but as a central part of my life. Almost immediately I started building everything around riding: my mornings, my workdays, my weekends. I didn’t want to squeeze riding into the cracks—I wanted to build my whole life around it.
I now ride five days a week, work full time, and run a small business in the margins. That business, of course, is supposed to help pay for another horse so I can get even busier than I already am. There’s no neat division between horses and “everything else.” It’s all overlapping constantly—changing out of a suit in the barn bathroom, taking meetings from my car in the horse show parking lot, juggling five calendars just to make it to my lessons. It’s chaotic, but I’ve stopped pretending I would ever want it any other way.
That kind of pace and the daily balance of work and riding is what pushed me to create something of my own.
I started Classic Day Equestrian because I couldn’t find a belt bag that fit the way I was actually living. (I also desperately needed to be able to check work emails at the barn.) I needed something I wanted to wear in the saddle or at a show, but didn’t look out of place when I ran errands, went to dinner, or walked into a meeting. I didn’t want to swap outfits, carry two bags, or compromise between form and function. I wanted something clean, useful, and elevated—designed for equestrians who live in their riding clothes.
What I’ve learned since is that I’m not the only one living this way.
That’s where my business partner, Vitoria, comes in. We met in Classic Day’s Instagram DMs and quickly realized we were living parallel lives—balancing real careers, real goals, and very real horse obsessions. She understood the vision immediately and joined Classic Day as someone living the same life: full-time work, full-time horse girl. She can spot a good font and clean a stall with equal precision—and she makes Classic Day infinitely better. She now runs much of our social presence and brings so much of the brand’s personality to life online.
Even more importantly, she’s helped turn Classic Day into something bigger than just a brand. Through the stories she tells, the DMs she answers, and the real-life moments she shares, she’s helped connect us with a whole community of riders living this same double life. People building careers and businesses, raising families, chasing big goals—and still finding time to ride five days a week. The kind of horse girls who make it all work because this is who we are.
Working together has also made us realize just how many people are out there doing the same thing—building something of their own in the margins of an already full life. One of the best parts of growing Classic Day has been connecting with other small, women-owned equestrian businesses that understand this lifestyle because they’re living it too. (In the photo, we’re both wearing Solid Citizen Equestrian shirts—another adult amateur owned brand that we are obsessed with.)
Classic Day was built for them—for us—and for the all-in, chaotic truth of what it really looks like to build your schedule, your priorities, and your closet around the barn. For equestrian style and a look behind the scenes, head to www.classicdayequestrian.com and follow us on Instagram @classicdayequestrian.
