A Horseless Horse Sport

Did you play with a hobby horse when you were a child? Maybe your grandparents told you stories of riding around the yard pretending to be Roy Rogers or Calamity Jane. Even if you didn’t own one yourself you likely knew someone who had one. Could the plastic horse rides at the grocery store be considered a hobby horse? Perhaps. Either way, hobby horses invoke happy memories of lighter times.

Were you aware that hobby horse riding is now a full-fledged sport? This is no joke, hobby horsing (yes that’s what it is called) is a real thing, and it’s gaining popularity. Why?, you may ask. Owning a horse is often a luxury, horses are expensive to purchase. Once you own a horse you are still responsible for food, vet bills, and possibly paying to board your horse. This can add up to thousands a year, at least.

The expense may seem like the obvious reason why to choose hobby horsing over performing with a real horse, but enthusiasts insist this isn’t true. Some cite friendships, exercise benefits, and imagination as the motivation to stay involved in the sport. While courage is not necessary, it is described as a side-effect of hobby horsing. Still, it must help that there isn’t manure involved.

What Exactly Are They Doing with the Hobby Horses?

With hobby horsing, you do all the same things as you would with a real horse but with a horse head on a stick. There are competitions for dressage and jumping and the ‘riders’ are judged based on these skills:

• Gait
• Walk
• Trot
• Canter
• Gallop
• Back
• Hobbyhorse showing
• Costumes must be included (and be glorious)
• Rider Style
• Energy
• Enjoyability
• Costume (Ummm of course)
• Dressage
• Dancing
• Choreographed to music

Who Is Doing It?

Probably not surprisingly, this sport is largely favored by teenage girls. There are usually divisions for beginners, intermediate, and experienced. Sometimes they will have an age division instead of experience. You can judge this strange sport but think about it. Isn’t it a good thing that these girls have put away their cell phones to just have some pure childhood fun while they still can? There are worse decisions they could make as to how best to spend their time.

Whose Idea Was This Anyhow?

Hobby horses have been around since the 16th century. The sport shares something with several strange sports, it starts with the Fin’s. It first showed up in Finland in 2012 and has quickly gained support. Finland has over 10,000 people that compete in hobby horsing every year and this number keeps growing.

A documentary film, entitled “Hobbyhorse Revolution” introduced the unique sport to the rest of the world in 2017. After that, competitive hobby horsing events began to show up across the world including:

• Europe
• Canada
• United States
• Australia

These events may be held before official equestrian events but some places take the events as seriously as in Finland itself. Competitors usually take the sport quite seriously. You may giggle to picture people prancing around with a hobby horse but these competitors are devoted to their sport. Some spend hours honing their skills and developing their own unique style.

How Do I Go About Starting to Hobby Horse

The first thing is to purchase a hobby horse. For very young children some people recommend starting your little one with a pool noodle with a fake horse head taped on top. You do you, but children have been using hobby horses for hundreds of years. Yes of course there is some danger as there is perceived danger in everything if we look hard enough. You can buy hobby horses online in all sorts of styles and price points. A quick search shows inflatable models for as low as $10 with some very realistic-looking hobby horses for hundreds of dollars. As with a horse, shop around and find something you love.

Once you have your beloved (stuffed) equine partner you can check out YouTube videos to watch competitions. Or plan to attend a hobby horsing event to see how it works and mingle with the competitors and their families. As with all equine events, hobbyhorsing is a tight-knit community and you might find lots of help and support.

Not Convinced Yet?

I saved the best for last! I’m not sure if this has come to the Americas yet but in Finland, an important part of the sport of hobby horsing is neighing event. You heard that right, your team must be invested to get this right. The winner needs to have the most authentic ‘real’ horse neigh. The Fin’s take this so seriously that there are coaches specific to this one category.

If that doesn’t pique your interest in this weird sport then maybe you just aren’t cut out for hobby horsing. You can still watch the videos though. Honestly, one of the best parts of strange sports is just finding out about the sport itself and watching people give it all they have to compete. We could all do well to not take ourselves too seriously and just get out there and have some fun.