What does a cowgirl appear like? For some, the query could name forth photos of flanneled shirts, Stetson hats and bootcut denims. But in escaramuza, the all-female equestrian sport imported by the US from Mexico, the reply is a bit totally different.
Before each escaramuza competitors, every crew strains as much as have its uniforms measured. Strict pointers dictate that the riders’ tiered Victoriana clothes, usually vivid in shade and trimmed with lace, have to be lengthy sufficient to cowl their horses’ haunches. Glitter and beading are prohibited, however any equipment from earrings to brooches should match. Boots, too, must be an identical all through a crew. Under every gown is a petticoat layer, in addition to a pair of bloomers — each are to be steamed. One lacking underlayer can disqualify the complete squad.
Once they’ve handed their inspection, these spectacularly clad ladies go on to carry out an elaborate synchronized routine whereas driving side-saddle. Their frothing clothes develop into fast-moving flurries of pink, purple and sky blue as they gallop throughout the area.
Photographer Constance Jaeggi spent the greatest a part of two years touring throughout the US to California, Texas, Idaho, Colorado, Oregon and Washington D.C. photographing these ladies, first for an exhibition at The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and later for the upcoming e-book “Escaramuza: The Poetics of Home.”
This visible conflict — the robust, muscular horse working beneath layers of delicate petticoats — is one beloved by vogue. Dior’s former designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was impressed by the conventional costume of escaramuza, as seen through the model’s 2019 Cruise runway present; whereas the September 2025 situation of Vogue, featured self-described horse ladies Kendal Jenner and Gigi Hadid atop nice steeds in lacy McQueen clothes.
Jaeggi hopes individuals will come for her vibrant portraits of fantastically dressed ladies, and keep for a extra layered and sophisticated story about feminism, immigration and private sacrifice. “I think the fashion aspect of it is the easy entry point,” Jaeggi stated in a video interview.
Along with taking their {photograph}, Jaeggi would watch hours of crew rehearsals and sometimes ate dinner together with her topics of their residence. She interviewed the ladies and handed alongside their recorded conversations to Mexican-American writers Ire’ne Lara Silva, the 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, and Angelina Sáenz, who wrote 15 accompanying poems every in each Spanish and English. The result’s a story of two halves — the calm, predictable waters of Jaeggi’s photos, versus a tense storm brewing in the phrases of the poets.
“When I started researching and speaking to the escaramuza, I realized how important the oral histories were to their story,” she stated. Jaeggi was additionally “hyper aware” of the indisputable fact that she isn’t Mexican-American herself. “I don’t have that cultural, personal connection and I felt it was important to make sure that was a major part of the work.”
Instead of visiting the sport’s residence nation, Jaeggi was as an alternative drawn to the ladies who had been working exhausting to ascertain escaramuza in the US. “In Mexico, it really is the sport of the wealthy,” she stated. But the performers she met, most of them first or second technology immigrants, advised a special story. From bake gross sales to fund the price of the extravagant, hand-made clothes for competitions (the robes price roughly $300 to $400 every and are imported throughout the Mexican border) to placing gasoline in every others automobiles, the groups Jaeggi met had been financially interdependent communities with one shared purpose: furthering their athletic craft.
“One of the stories I kept hearing was that it took them years, like a couple of generations, to be able to afford to have horses and to be able to do this sport,” she stated. “It made it even more impressive to me, the fact that they dedicate so many of their resources to it.” When discussions moved onto the subject of immigration “there was some hesitance” for ladies to go on the file, Jaeggi stated, as a result of they had been undocumented. That was in 2023 — earlier than President Trump’s mission of mass deportation and deployment of ICE. “It’s a difficult political climate right now,” she added.
Throughout Jaeggi’s e-book, there may be an undercurrent of inequality that repeatedly bubbles to the floor. Escaramuza is a five- to 10-minute drop in the three-hour ocean of conventional charrería — the completely male ranching and horsemanship competitors that can also be Mexico’s nationwide sport. Charrería was declared as Mexico’s nationwide sport in 1933, although ladies had been solely allowed to carry out as an entertaining half-time present in 1953. Escaramuza was not acknowledged as an athletic aggressive occasion till 1992. Even at present, the uniforms of male riders will not be inspected as rigorously as their female counterparts, Jaeggi notes, a purpose she coyly attributes to “interesting gender dynamics.”
While the ladies are keen to take care of their traditions and culture, they really feel weighed down by the sport’s strict, essentialist views on gender. It’s a knotty back-and-forth that principally comes by way of in writing. “Women/Are second class citizens in this sport,” reads one line of a Sáenz poem, “You are prettier when you are quiet.” In one other work, “Machetona,” Silva interprets the wrestle of a lesbian teammate who tries to rally in opposition to the inherent misogyny of escaramuza. The historical past of side-saddle, for instance, comes from the worry that driving astride dangers breaking a lady’s hymen, compromising the proof of her virginity and, subsequently, her worth.
“When it came to issues around gender and feminism, and pushing against some of these gender boundaries, I think most women were really willing to talk about it,” Jaeggi stated. “They felt like their voices weren’t always heard in their community, and so there was a lot of frustration that was coming out. Those were really great conversations.”
In “The Poetics of Home,” delight and frustration are intermingled in equal elements. But all can agree that an imperfect group is healthier than none. The “sisterhood,” as escaramuza is usually referred to in the e-book, provides these ladies function, route and a way of belonging. “A sisterhood/Born of struggling and dreaming and training,” reads Silva’s poem “Lo Nuestro.” And as a lot as this sport is rooted in heritage, the ladies competing at present have their sights set on the future. Jaeggi remembers a dialog with an escaramuza rider, who advised her that “one of the main reasons she does this sport is she wants little girls, the next generation, to see that as a woman, you too can ride a horse.”
“For a long time within charrería they weren’t,” she stated. “The thought of having a woman compete alongside a man, or ride alongside a man on a horse, was unthinkable.”