Mary-Kate Olsenretired from acting a decade ago, at just 25 years old. The last movie she made was 2011's Beastly after starting her career on Full House, with her twin sister Ashley Olsen, at nine months old. Ashley revealed in an interview with British Elle (via Vanity Fair) in 2012 that "it was time to step behind the process" and "work on other things." Ashley said if she ever got "back in" to Hollywood, it was "not going to be as an actress," which was a sentiment Mary-Kate shared. "It just felt right to move away," she said.
It's been well-documented that the Olsens went on to focus their attention on designing, with two high-end fashion labels, Elizabeth and James and The Row. But that's not all they've been doing since. Mary-Kate actually has a completely different career that you may not know about. Read on to find out what she's been up to!
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Mary-Kate Olsen is a professional equestrian.
Stephane Allaman/ALeA/Getty ImagesAs People reports, on Sept. 18, Mary-Kate, now 35, won third place at the Longines Global Champions Tour in Rome, Italy, riding a horse named Dunotaire V. Mary-Kate competed in another event recently on Sept. 16, where she earned second place with the a horse named Iowa Van Het Polderhof.
Mary-Kate has been riding Dunotaire V for some time now. In 2019, W magazine reported that she rode the horse at the 2018 Palm Beach Open in Wellington, Florida, where she ranked seventh out of 40 riders. The outlet also says she's been competing in the Hampton Classic Horse Show in Bridgehampton, New York since 2013.
According to the magazine, Mary-Kate has also ridden horses named Feu d’Amour, Prem’ Dollar Boy, and Hertog Van’t Merdehof. In addition to the recent competition in Italy, the former child star has competed around in the world in Spain and France.
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She fell in love with horses on one of her early movies.
Warner Bros. Television via YouTubeThough she is now notoriously press shy, Mary-Kate has talked about her love of horses before, People notes. In a 2019 feature for HITS, Inc., a horse show production company in the U.S., Mary-Kate said: "I was six when I first fell in love and it was with a pony named 4x4."
That pony, according to HITS, was a part of the 1992 movie To Grandmother's House We Go, one of her and her sister's first non-Full House projects. It features a horse chase scene as the twins, who've been kidnapped, decide to use Santa's horse-drawn sleigh to escape to their grandma's.
Then, in 1993, on Mary-Kate and Ashley's album I Am the Cute One, the two sang a song called "My Horse and Me," W points out. There was also a polo match featured in their 2001 movie Winning London.
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Mary-Kate rode horses competitively in high school, but stopped in college.
Stephane Allaman/ALeA/Getty ImagesAs she grew up, horses continued to be a pivotal part of Mary-Kate's life. At Campbell Hall School, she competed on the equestrian team. "Having horseback riding as an outlet was super important because it allowed me to have another life and outlet outside of work and school," she told HITS.
In 2008, she told Elle, "Although I was always surrounded by a lot of adults [in show business], my big hobby was horseback riding, so I was surrounded by all my horseback riding friends, too."
When she moved to New York City to study at New York University, she stopped riding for a bit, but she eventually came back to it. "I missed it every day that I wasn't riding," she told HITS. "It was the hardest thing to leave and the hardest thing to come back to."
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Mary-Kate's equestrian career has also influenced her other job, too.
NEIL RASMUS/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesMary-Kate admitted to HITS: "It is a challenge to balance both a career that requires almost all of my time and a true passion that is not a full time job. It is unfortunate that I can't be in two places at once. I have had to learn to be patient with myself.”
The former child star added, "Horses teach you a lot about yourself," noting that riding has allowed her "to practice being accepting, patient, disciplined, compassionate, competitive, and all of those other emotions that are very important to have in your everyday life."
They also influenced her career as a designer. "One of The Row’s first blazers was inspired by one of my first show jumping coats,” she told HITS.
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