Yep, around here I’ve known plenty of people who owned horses that you would never mistake for upper middle class. Never owned one myself, but the closest field of them used to be about 100 feet away from my front door. (Except when they got out–then they would be in my front yard. The horses were fine. When the neighbor had a bull instead, that was more of an issue to have it in my yard.)
I was just like you! I read every horse book I could get my hands on. Fiction and non. Marguerite Henry was my favorite author. I still have all of those books. I’d trace all of the pictures too. I’d go to a local stable and go horseback riding whenever I could save up some money. I had loads of figurines, some of them Breyers. I’d cut out pictures of horses from the newspaper and magazines and put them in a scrapbook.
I always thought I’d get a horse when I grew up but I never have. I still love them and even watch the somewhat sappy tween show Heartland just for the horses! My sister has had horses off and on and I’ve seen how much work they are and how expensive they are - vet bills for stuff I never imagined. I’ve never lived in a home that was conducive to owning a horse. Boarding would just be another expense. Dreaming about something is sometimes better!
I’m a 60 year old horse crazy girl. I keep my horse (red headed TB mare) at a barn full of horse crazy girls, women, and men. Board is $480 a month. We are not rich. We are poor because we have horse(s). I have loved horses all my life, but there were no opportunities for riding lessons on the south side of Chicago. I started riding when I was 27 and bought Bob, my first horse whe I was 30. Bob and I were together over 25 years. He crossed the bridge 4 years ago. I bought Ariel last June after leasing her for 6 months.
Can you tell I love horses?
Thank you all for the responses. I still have a soft spot in my heart for horses even today. When I was 12 there was a horse and pony in a field within walking distance of my house, and I went up there every day after school to gaze upon the glorious creatures, and pet them. After I was 40’ish, married, and moved out to the suburbs that was once farmland, there were horses right down the road from me and I always slowed the car to get a good look at them.
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I once saw them referred to as “crap machines you stuff $100 bills into”. 
I once saw them referred to as “crap machines you stuff $100 bills into”.
My daughter started to ride just after we moved to California when she was 10. A bit young for jeeps. And the barns she was at were 95% female, at least. A teenage boy (who could afford it) wanting to meet girls could do worse than taking up riding.
In the Bay Area you have to have at least some money to ride. One of the kids who rode at her barn’s father was a founder of a tech company which went IPO. One woman’s husband owned a chain of mattress stores. Let’s just say that when my daughter went to a state college and we donated her horse, my monthly bills went down.
Girls like all the horse books. It’s been a while since horses were used in war, at least in the West.
But my garden greatly improved thanks to composted horse manure. Made my tomatoes a steal at like $10 each.
Maybe we can blame Elizabeth Taylor for this (among other things).
I, too, was gonna say Tina Belcher loves horses AND butts!
Holy shit, what money and technical know-how can get you! When did Gates and Job have a child together?
A hundred years ago everyone had a horse and only rich people had a car. Today everyone has a car and only rich people have horses. My, how the stables have turned. 
My daughter went thru the horse phase by going to riding camps, reading books and collecting a sizable assortment of toy horses. Now she’s older and moved on, but we still like to ride occasionally. We’ve known other girls who did the same during the 10-15 age, so I do think it’s still a thing.
Remember when Microsoft bailed out Apple? It was part of the deal.
I was just talking about this with some of my also former horse crazy girl friends. Some things that appealed to us:
With a horse, you can run fast, jump high, and be strong. If you’re a young girl who’s not considered strong or fast, it’s incredibly freeing!
Cantering is just fun! So is jumping. Think about the thrill you feel when you’re on skis! No, you don’t canter or jump all the time, but when you do, it feels like flying.
You can compete with and even beat the boys. If you’ve been told a hundred times you “throw like a girl,” it is so rewarding to be an equal competitor.
You can get dirty! Maybe this isn’t such a big deal for girls today. For those of us who are older, it was so nice not to have to worry about keeping yourself and your clothes neat and clean.
You’re not alone. Your horse won’t judge you if you get a pimple, say something awkward, etc. The horse doesn’t care if you’re pretty, hang with the cool kids, etc.
You can also be a girlie girl when you want to. You can brush your horse’s coat to a gleaming shine, spiff up the mane and tail, even braid for shows.
But mostly, you can do more with a horse than you can on your own. I feel this again now that I’m in my 50s. I’m not as athletic as I was. I have my aches and pains and stiffness. On a horse, I can gallop and jump. I’m not limited by my own body.
When I was a kid my first, second, and third best friends (early elementary school, later elementary school, and junior high through college, respectively) were all horse crazy, so I kind of got it by osmosis. I went through a brief horse phase, but since my parents had no intention of buying me a horse (and to be brutally honest, I didn’t really want one–I just wanted to want one) I had to settle for Breyer figurines and reading the Black Stallion series (which I loved). I kind of got interested in horse racing for a while because of it.
I was a tomboy–I really wanted a mini-bike (which my parents also refused to get me. As soon as I turned 16 I got a car, and that ended any remaining bits of the horse phase.
My high school/college best friend still loves horses. She wasn’t/isn’t wealthy (our town was pretty horsey–lots of the kids had them) but she has a ranch in Bakersfield where she and her husband have some number of horses plus sheep, goats, etc.
There are still a lot of horse-crazy girls. It’s too bad it’s become so gendered as I think a lot of boys would enjoy the companionship of a horse, too. I never grew out of being horse crazy, but it’s too expensive to keep one around here and when my last one went to the great pasture in the sky, I didn’t replace him. I sure miss him. 
I’m waiting for a few years until we move to somewhere less expensive. I still have a garage full of horse stuff.
I always tell single men friends to take riding lessons. They’ll have all the women they can handle. 
MY sister loves horses
I have a friend who teaches riding to multiple-amputee veterans in Colorado. Their response is much the same: when I’m riding a horse, I am just as mobile & capable as anyone else. Great improvement over everyday, when you are confined by a wheelchair or crutches.
That’s was my daughters path - Girl Scout CIT and WIT.
She herself is actually not that crazy about horses and never has been. She did a week of horse camp in late elementary school, and went back in middle school because a friend wanted to (the friend was horse crazy - and one of those girls that cleaning a stable broke her of her desire to have a horse). She went a third year with ANOTHER friend. She rides ok after all those years at camp - during CIT she kept getting put with the horse campers because she’d done horse camp, and now she is a horse camp counselor because she has all this experience with the horses. But we’ve never given her lessons outside of Girl Scout camp and frankly she would rather be a general counselor than a horse counselor. But Horse Camp is very popular, and finding Horse Camp counselors is difficult because its a LOT of work - you look after girls AND horses - so she continues to get stuck with the horses (and the horse girls).
Okay, I’ll take a slightly different perspective here. Longtime elementary school teacher.
a) Yes, there certainly are girls who are horse-crazy these days. I can think of a couple of girls who love horses right now in my classes (I’m a specialist and deal with about 100 kids in the course of a week). I had a girl a few years ago who was totally obsessed–she’d be in high school now. Everything she wrote about, every math problem she constructed, dealt with horses. I had another before that who rode every week (Mom picked her up early every Tuesday, wearing riding boots and a funky little cap), and she’s now trying to make it in the competitive horse world. She’d be in her early twenties I guess. So, yes, they exist.
b) That being said, I think interest in horses among girls has diminished quite a bit from the time I was a kid (elementary school around 1970) and even from the time I started teaching. It’s not the only interest that’s diminished. Interest in boxing has vanished (among boys mainly). Interest in space and in dinosaurs seems to have dropped considerably. When I think back to my childhood i can recall quite a few girls who were completely consumed with horses and horse stuff, even though few if any actually rode. So while kids like that still exist, there are nowhere near as many at least in my experience.
c) I suspect MaddyStrut has part of the reason for a decline, if there really is one. Used to be girls were steered away from rough play and competitive sports. Horses could fill that gap/need. Today, you don’t NEED a horse to express that side of yourself; there’s a travel soccer team that’s happy to let you play. I’m sure that’s not the only thing, but I bet it plays a role.
As an aside, I always thought there was a racial component in this. Growing up, my school was about 1/3 African American. I can;t think of a single black girl in my classes who was focused on horses. It was a white girl thing. My current school has a lower % of AA kids, but the same thing applies: all the girls who’ve been into horses are white. No, I don’t know why, especially since as I said, very few of the kids I knew then or know now actually have horses.
Stable cleaning? My daughter’s horse was named Robbie, and she did some stuff to him that made stable cleaning look like a tea party. Let’s just say excellent biology lesson.
One unexpected benefit for my daughter. When she went to college, she went to one with an equestrian team. (They had the horses.) She became captain her third year, and in moving barns she learned a ton about dealing with government contracting (it was a state school) and negotiations. Riding was good, but negotiating was a lot more useful.