On Sunday, March 15, Hollywood’s elite will gather at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 98th Academy Awards.
While movie stars and filmmakers wear their finest designer dresses and custom suits on Oscar night, many of them are more comfortable in riding clothes in real-life as they indulge their passion for horses.
As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honors the best films and performances of the past year, we are celebrating former Oscar nominees and winners who are also equestrians — some of whom are USEF members!
Mikey Madison: Won the best actress award for “Anora” (2025)
Mikey Madison, whose real name is Mikaela Madison Rosberg, is a USEF member who grew up competing in hunter/jumper shows in the Los Angeles area. Both Madison’s mother and grandmother were equestrians, and she rode at the family farm from a young age on her ponies Tinker Bell, Bubbles, and Thumbelina.
While hosting “Saturday Night Live” after winning the 2025 Best Actress Award for her role in “Anora,” Madison, now 26, told the audience: “Growing up, I never actually planned on being an actor. When I was a kid, I was a very proud, self-proclaimed horse girl. I even did homeschooling so I could spend more time at the barn with the horses.”
Madison gave up showing at age 14 to focus on acting but said she would like to return to riding one day.
Viggo Mortensen: Nominated for the best actor award for “Eastern Promises” (2008), “Captain Fantastic” (2017,) and “Green Book” (2019)
Danish actor Viggo Mortensen found global fame as Aragorn in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He went on to star in the biographical Western “Hidalgo,” in which his character competes in a 3,000-mile race across the Najd desert in Saudi Arabia on a Mustang.
Mortensen is known for not only riding horses on screen but also bringing them home with him after his films wrap.
“There were actually three horses that I bought. They were up for sale once the movies were done,” he told NME in a 2020 interview. “There were the two I’d ridden — a chestnut and then the big bay that Aragorn rides — but I also bought the white horse that Arwen rides in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ when she’s being chased through the forest by the Black Riders.”
Uraeus, who played Brego in the film, was a Dutch Warmblood and a former top-level dressage horse. While the other horse, Kenny, was described by Mortensen as “very easy and relaxed ... I just wanted Uraeus to have a buddy.”
Mortensen said he had no intention of buying a horse after shooting “Hidalgo,” but then he met Tecontender (“TJ”) and was impressed by his ability and intelligence. “He was only about 14.2, a quick learner — and for a stallion, very relaxed on the set. He wasn’t afraid or worried about the lights, camera, or anything,” the actor said, according to Equestrian Life.
Julia Roberts: Nominated for the best supporting actress award for “Steel Magnolias” (1990) and “August: Osage County” (2014); won best actress award for “Pretty Woman” (1991) and “Erin Brockovich” (2001)
Undoubtedly the most famous image of Julia Roberts on a horse is from the 1999 rom-com, “The Runaway Bride,” when she is seen riding in a wedding dress. (The horse, Hightower, is the same equine actor who played Pilgrim in “The Horse Whisperer.”)
However, not only does the Oscar-winning actress have horses on her Taos, N.M. ranch, she also made a PBS documentary film titled “Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts,” in which she lived with a nomadic family and learned about their special bond with horses.
“For these horses to just be allowed to roam around and they don’t take off and leave … is kind of amazing. Everywhere in America, you see animals and you also see fences. Here it’s really about the love and respect that man gives to the animal that they all stay together,” Roberts said in the film.
Taylor Sheridan: Nominated for the best original screenplay award for “Hell or High Water” (2016)
“Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan has been hailed for making Westerns cool again! The hit Paramount drama not only ran five seasons but has also spawned two prequel series.
Sheridan’s first experiences being a cowboy came from his mother, who bought a ranch in Cranfills Gap, Texas, when her son was eight years old. The family lived in Fort Worth during the week and then went to the ranch on weekends and holidays.
“We didn’t depend on our ranch for income,” Sheridan told Texas Highways magazine. “But it’s where I learned how to become a cowboy.”
The actor-turned-producer/director’s first job was as a wrangler on a cattle ranch when he was 14, and while his career took the Hollywood route, horses remained in his blood. He prefers horse shows and rodeos to movie premieres, and regularly rides his reining and cutting horses with his wife on their Texas ranch.
“Everybody wants to be a cowboy,” he said. “It’s a romantic way of life. But it’s rarely portrayed realistically in Westerns. We want to show the real cowboy life.”
Russell Crowe: Nominated for the best actor award for “The Insider” (2000), and “A Beautiful Mind” (2002); won for “Gladiator” (2001)
Russell Crowe portrayed a horseman early in his career with the 1993 Australian film, “The Silver Brumby.” He was seen back in the saddle again in Ridley Scott’s epic, “Gladiator,” in which Crowe did his own equestrian stunts, such as riding a horse down a mountainside.
“I had a good amount of horse experience before then. I started riding when I was a kid and didn’t take it seriously until I was in my mid 20s,” he said in an interview with Variety.
Crowe has ridden horses so often in his movies that he’s developed bonds with some of the popular equine stars.
“There’s a horse [named] George who I gave the speech in the forest in ‘Gladiator’ on. Years later he was on the set of ‘Robin Hood,’ and we would have a chat every day,” he posted on social media. “Same with the white horse Rusty in ‘Robin Hood,’ we chatted again on ‘Les Mis.’ Lifelong friends.”
Lady Gaga: Nominated for the best original song award for “Til it Happens to You” (2016) and “Hold My Hand” (2023); won for “Shallow” (2019); nominated for the best actress award for “A Star Is Born” (2019)
Stefani Germanotta, better known as Lady Gaga, didn’t grow up around horses, but became an equestrian when the chairman of her record company, Interscope Records, gifted her an Arabian mare named Arabella in 2015. Gaga went on to buy a stallion named Trigger to keep Arabella company.
“When I ride him, it always makes me feel so powerful, because he is so powerful. There’s no pressure. I just get on the horse and go,” she said in an interview with V magazine. “Riding has forced me to be fearless pretty quickly.”
Gaga posted a heartbreaking tribute to Arabella in 2019 when she passed away, writing: “Our souls and spirits were one. When she was in pain, so was I. I will never forget the moments we shared. Long hikes together, galloping through the canyons. Feeding her cookies. She will forever be a part of me. I am so very sad. But I wish for your pain to end, and the gates of heaven to open for you. I love you. Girl, where do you think you’re goin’?”
Liam Neeson: Nominated for the best actor award for “Schindler’s List” (1994)
Irish actor Liam Neeson developed his love of horses by riding and caring for them on a family farm in Northern Ireland.
“As a horse lover, I grew up riding and caring for two horses every summer on my aunt’s small farm in County Armagh, Northern Ireland,” Neeson wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times, in which he voiced his support for the city’s horse-drawn carriage industry. “I have continued to enjoy working with horses in a professional context over the years, appearing in a couple of Westerns and what I call ‘cowboys in armor’ movies. I can appreciate a happy and well-cared-for horse when I see one.”
The “Taken” star is another actor who has reunited with his equine co-stars on different movie sets, stating that a horse he worked with on “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” recognized him from a prior film.
“This horse knew me. He actually remembered me from another Western we made a while back. He whinnied when he saw me and pawed the ground,” Neeson said. “When we worked together before, I took special care of him. I fed him treats. Gave him apples.”
Jeremy Irons: Won the best actor award for “Reversal of Fortune” (1991)
British actor Jeremy Irons is renowned for his role in historical dramas such as “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Brideshead Revisited,” and he naturally took to riding horses for the roles.
Irons told The Guardian that his horse, The Earl of Newport, a.k.a. Paddy, was among his most treasured possessions (along with his two dogs), and when asked where he would most like to be, he replied: “On the back of my horse in Ireland.”
Along with his on-and-off screen equestrian pursuits, Irons also penned the foreword for the 2012 book, “England on Horseback,” by Zara Colchester and Charlotte Sainsbury-Plaice.
“Traveling through England, and doing it on horseback, is to rediscover both the romance of the countryside and man’s relationship with both his environment and his horse,” he wrote.