Between Bella Hadid and Bowie House, Fort Worth Is Having a Moment

On Wednesday, Bella Hadid posted a photo slideshow on Instagram that began with her hugging a horse named Tito. She wore a distinctive Western-style cowboy hat, chaps, and her hair in braids—an outfit, the next video in the carousel showed, that was selected for her first cutting horse event held at Taylor Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch in the Fort Worth suburb of Weatherford. “Never stop trying new things,” she wrote. “I feel lucky enough to have the opportunity to keep learning in life. Thank you Tito, I will never stop loving on you like this!”

Hadid’s reason for being in the Lone Star State is likely a romantic one, as the model is rumored to be dating rodeo star Adan Banuelos. (In October 2023, paparazzi captured them kissing in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, where, twice daily, a longhorn cattle drive takes place in the streets.) All the same, her love for a horse named Tito and the rodeo reflects a growing affection for the famous cowboy city nicknamed “Cowtown.”

Hadid isn’t the only person discovering the magic of Fort Worth: The city’s tourism board found that a record 10.8 million people visited the area in 2022. And last month, Bowie House—a new five-star property from Auberge Resorts—opened in the city’s Cultural District to spectacular fanfare: on its first night in business, there was already a large Lucchese-clad crowd clamoring to get in. 

To call Bowie (pronounced “Boo-wee”) House’s interiors “western” feels diminutive, especially as it’s owned by Jo Ellard, a National Cutting House Association Hall of Fame Rider. Sure, there are cow-print chairs and fringed lamps reminiscent of a leather cowboy jacket. And yes, there are equestrian photographs everywhere. But where so many hotels channel that aesthetic in a way that feels like they’re manufacturing a Disneyland-esque stage set for tourists eager to cosplay cowboy, Bowie feels like the living room of a real-life lasso thrower.