They might call it is a pastime, but the girls and young women who race and leap holding felt heads of riding horses with some passion.
“Hobbyhorsing,” which recreates equestrian events with a toy in place of the real horse, naturally has its roots in children's play. But around the early 2000s, it started to catch on in Finland as a sporting community of engagement and craft — you could design your own horses, trade or collect them, organize dressage shows and bond with other enthusiasts. The Finnish Hobbyhorse Championship 2024, the sport's biggest event, will celebrate its 11th anniversary this weekend, welcoming international competitors. (The country has an official horse hobby club and helped set up others across Europe.)
To an outsider, hobbyhorsing may seem as strange as Quidditch, the flying broomstick sport from Harry Potter which the students adapted to a real game, but earthly, in which the players move with brooms clamped between their legs. Even the Finnish Hobbyist Association acknowledges this: “It goes without saying that many of those who have just heard about our hobby are more or less confused,” notes the group's website.
Accordingly, when videos of hobby horse routines go viral online — as they did this week — embarrassment and ridicule tend to follow. In this case, a hobby horseman shared one Tik Tok of herself struggling to breathe after participating in this year's Slovakia championship. He meant the clip to show that while the hobby “looks easy,” it requires significant athletic effort. Commentators didn't buy it and accused her of overdramatizing the sport's difficulty, with many objecting to even categorizing the activity as such.
But there's a silver lining to the show, says Nele Nöhrbaß, an 18-year-old hobby rider and content creator in Germany: Widely shared videos raise the community's profile and attract curious newcomers. “On social media, there were hardly any videos you could learn from,” Nöhrbaß says of the time in 2017 when she got into the hobby. “I started uploading videos myself and I think thanks to me and some other 'hobby influencers' the sport has grown a lot in the last five years. A lot of people were inspired by the videos and I feel like it's getting more and more every year. And today, if I tell people what I do, they know what it is — most of the time,” he says.
“I thought it was a little weird at first,” admits Nöhrbaß when describing how she discovered the hobby on YouTube at age 12, “but after a while I just tried it and immediately enjoyed it. I managed to convince my parents to buy me my first hobby horse. I also started my YouTube channel and posted my training there.” Nöhrbaß now trains two to four times a week — and more often late, as she will compete in the Finnish Championships this weekend. Germany also hosts many tournaments, and will soon have its own championships for the first time, he says. “In the summer I usually go to one or two tournaments a month, in the winter it's a little less. Most of them are organized by private individuals, but sometimes they are also sports clubs,” explains Nöhrbaß.
Nöhrbaß certainly seems to be an effective ambassador in the world of hobbyhorsing, having a total of more than 80,000 followers on her YouTube, TikTok and Instagram accounts. She is a hobby horse dresser herself and loves to highlight the eclectic and imaginative qualities of the sport. “You can be creative and active!” she says. “You can make your own gear, make videos or take pictures, and you can make a lot of new friends.” Riding clubs and hobby horse camps foster these close connections.
While you might assume that hobbyists don't have access to real horses and just fantasize about having their own stable, Nöhrbaß says that's a common misconception. He grew up with horses, has experience riding and estimates that “80 percent of the hobbyists I know also ride real horses.” This knowledge carries over to training and performing with inanimate horses: “We often look at real horses to copy the movements a bit,” says Nöhrbaß. “Sometimes I study horse racing to learn.” But the hobby requires a synthesis of gymnastic movement as both rider and animal. “It's a completely different demand on the body,” he says. “It's much more about endurance.”
Nöhrbaß knows that not everyone will catch the hobby fever and that some are skeptical of its benefits. “Just try it if you think you might like it,” she advises. “If you're afraid of someone else's reaction, you don't have to tell them. And if you don't like it, you can stop. It's normal to feel weird at first, because when do you see someone riding a hobby horse? But after a while, you'll get used to it and maybe you'll see how much fun it can be.”
Perhaps it is this element of whimsy that draws these nimble and high-spirited young women to hobby horses rather than traditional equestrian events. In any case, they don't seem dismayed by anyone who dismisses their pursuit as childish. Cynics can sneer all they want — they'll never get to ride those happy paths.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/hobby-horsing-equestrian-sport-toy-horse-1235038877/
