GIRL (HORSE)POWER
The documentary Hobbyhorse Revolution looks at a sport that’s becoming oddly popular in Finland,
Equestrian Alisa Aarniomaki arrives in Toronto this month with her horse in her suitcase and girl power on her mind.
The 20-year-old Helsinki student is one of the leading lights of a fastgrowing sport in Finland, one practised primarily by teen girls: hobby horse riding.
Aarniomaki is among the devotees profiled in Oscar-nominated Finnish filmmaker Selma Vilhunen’s Hobbyhorse Revolution, screening at Hot Docs Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Aarniomaki says riding stick horses topped with stuffed fuzzy heads is far from a kiddie pastime. It’s a challenging sport and worthy of respect. A sought-after coach and social media star back home, she’s also a hobby horse-maker, rider and inspiration to many of the estimated10,000 hobby horse enthusiasts in Finland.
Vilhunen’s camera follows one group as they train in parking lots, woods and meadows and compete in school gymnasiums. This is serious business to these teens, who do all the work in what they vigorously argue is a legitimate sport, on mounts with names such as Haters Gonna Hate, Serial Killers and Snipers. And they don’t care what anybody says. It looks a bit ridiculous at first, but you can’t help but be impressed as 14-year-old Mariam Njie, called Ais- ku, holds her stuffed horse’s head up with one hand to rein her mount with the other through high-stepping prancing for dressage, later flying over obstacle jumps.
“It’s a really hard sport and the athletics of hobby horsing are really tough,” Aarniomaki told the Star from Finland.
“I’m kind of proud of what I’ve done,” she said of her videos and the “respect the hobby horse” flash mobs she’s led.
The riders talk candidly about being bullied for hobby horsing, including shy Elsa, who suffered from depression in the wake of her parents’ split and the loss of a beloved animal companion.
They encourage each other, helping build self-confidence in the face of those who taunt them for their love of the stand-in steeds.
“A lot of people want to keep their hobby kind of secret. They don’t want to hear being told every day that what they do is silly and childish,” Vilhunen said.
She said the sport, which is “kind of looked down on and not really considered anything serious,” is getting some respect, with coverage of hobby horse events and an enthusiastic social media following.
Although Instagram and Facebook bind the hobby horse community, it’s refreshing to see girls putting down their smartphones for a good part of the documentary. There’s no talk of boys or body image; rather they’re concerned with how their horses are doing as they carefully tend to them (one is lovingly retired in a shoe box to a closet’s top shelf ) and what skills they can master.
“That’s really true,” Aarniomaki said. “Like, I don’t care about what I look like when I go for a ride or anything and it really relaxes me. Even though when it’s not about hobby horses, I have been stressing about my looks and everything else and, with the hobby horses, I don’t really care.”
Vilhunen, 40, started work on the documentary three years ago, after learning about the sport.
“I just want to broaden their world a little bit and I like to show young women working together, achieving things together and being ambitious about their own thing, and succeeding in creating wonderful things,” said Vilhunen, who said she’s tried hobby horse riding and found it “so much fun.”
Maybe there’s a secret hobby horse rider in all of us, she ventures.
“I would like people to find the courage and some skills to use their imagination and joy a little bit more in life.”
As for Aarniomaki, who will be joined at Hot Docs by hobby horse riders Aisku, Elsa and director Vilhunen, she was off for a hobby horse ride after speaking with the Star.
It was her first after a long time unable to ride since an accident: riding a real horse. Hobbyhorse Revolution screens Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank; Thursday at 4 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox and Saturday at 1:15 p.m. at Scotiabank.