Kaley Cuoco fell for boyfriend over animal love

Actress Kaley Cuoco bonded with her new boyfriend over their shared love of horses.

The Big Bang Theory star has been linked to professional equestrian Karl Cook since April (16), when the 30-year-old began sharing photos of her new man on social media.

Kaley has since started to open up more about Karl in the press, and she tells People.com their love has blossomed because they have so much in common.

"When you share something so special, some sort of connection - for us, it's horses, but anything two people share - you have that common goal and you know that you want the same things in life, day to day, and in the future," she gushed.

"It just sets you on a better path. Having a lot in common is really important and we definitely have a lot in common. I think that that's what makes us so strong and really happy."

The couple's dates frequently revolve around horse-related adventures, and Kaley confesses one recent outing was particularly "dorky".

"It's funny, he's either the one riding or it's me, so we're rarely doing it together," she explains. "But recently we did go on a little trail ride date. It was adorable. We hadn't really done that yet. One is usually cheering for the other so that was kind of cute to go out together. We totally held hands. It was very dorky!"

They even rode into the sunset together, which she admits was "a storybook ending" to their sweet date.

Kaley's love life has completely turned around in the past year - in September, 2015 she announced her separation from tennis player Ryan Sweeting after less than two years of marriage. Their divorce was finalised in May (16).

She also briefly dated Arrow star Paul Blackthorne late last year (15).