Neigh-sayers need not apply
among Finnish teen girls — when she first heard about it on a web discussion forum several years ago.
“Hobby-horsing has a strong therapeutic side to it,” says Aarniomaki, adding that it has helped her to deal with difficult personal issues such as her parents’ divorce and bullying at school.
“I’ve gone through lots of trouble and I’m still struggling with some issues. It has helped me a great deal that I can occasionally just go galloping into the woods with my friends. It somehow balances my mind.”
The sports simulates traditional equestrian events including competing in dressage and show jumping, and is physically demanding.
Hobby-horsing has g a i n e d m o m e n t u m o u t s i d e Finland because of this year’s release of the documentary
by the Finnish Oscarnominated director Selma Vilhunen. Over a year, she followed young hobby horse enthusiasts and their preparations for a competition.
Some actual horse riders may look down on hobby-horsing as childlike pastime not suitable for anyone aged over 10, but Fred Sundwall, the secretary general of the Equestrian Federation of Finland, disagrees.
“We think it’s simply wonderful that hobby-horsing has become a phenomenon and so popular,” Sundwall said. “It gives a chance to those children and teens who don’t own horses to interact with them also outside stables and riding schools.”
The vast majority of the hobby horses are homemade — splendid, colourful creatures complete with names like Chattanooga Choo Choo and Panda — exchanged and sold by owners at events and through social media. Some of them have been known to fetch up to $300 at auctions.
Aficionados take high pride in the sport’s do-it-yourself attitude, and very few industrially made hobby horses are seen at events because they are “lower-caste horses,” said Venla-Maria Uutela, a spokeswoman for a registered informal hobby horse society in Helsinki.
About 10,000 people, nearly all of them between the ages of 10 and 18, are estimated to be involved in hobby-horsing in Finland. Its popularity is also growing steadily in the other Nordic countries and elsewhere in Europe, though the numbers are much smaller.
No official statistics exist as hobbyhorsing doesn’t have an affiliation with Finnish sports associations and enthusiasts meet and exchange views mainly at web discussion forums and share photo material and videos through Instagram and YouTube.