Art by Hilary Campbell

Never make a horse girl angry!

Hilary Campbell, a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, comedian, and author, is one of those horse girls.

You can find her new T-shirt for sale at https://www.bonfire.com/riot-horse-grrrl/ — 100% of proceeds go to Return to Freedom to support our advocacy, sanctuary, education, and conservation work on behalf of wild horses and burros.

Hilary says she created the shirt because “everything that is happening to wild horses under the current administration is completely devastating” and wanted to do something about it.

As a child, she grew up in a small town in Northern California just a five-minute walk from a pasture where horses lived.

“I thought I was so damn cool — getting to go talk to horses for a while, bring them a carrot, tell them my secrets,” she writes. “Today I am a cartoonist for The New Yorker, and of course, I know how to draw a lot of things, but when I was a little kid I was obsessed with drawing horses, and I was oddly good at it. I had sketchbooks filled with them. They made me so happy.”

Hilary never had a horse of her own, but she watched the movie “Black Beauty” so many times that the VHS tape broke. Among her earliest memories is going to see “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” with her dad.

“When I saw what was happening to the wild horses in our country, I felt absolutely gutted. I’m also a comedian, so I cope with things through humor. My first reaction was, is this administration seriously trying to piss off Horse Girls? Not a good idea!

“While doodling about it, my brain started to meld together the concept of the Horse Girl and the Riot Grrls of the 90s. Perhaps there was something to it? That would comment on the moment? And that’s what made me want to make the shirt.”

Thank you, Hilary, and horse girls everywhere who support wild horses and Return to Freedom!