For those who love the idea of sports played with an extraneous stick-like object between their legs but find Quidditch too ideologically freighted, hobby horsing is the new trend sweeping through a very specific subset of the nation. This year marked the inaugural U.S. Hobby Horse Championships in Almont, Michigan, where Dubuque teen Gwen Maiers took home two first-place ribbons.
The sport of hobby horsing originated in Finland and was popularized by the 2017 documentary Keppihevosten vallankumous (Hobbyhorse Revolution). It found a following in the States — small, but dedicated and close-knit. At the championships, 11-year-old Ava Apodaca, who has a YouTube channel devoted to hobby horsing with more than 30,000 subscribers, was swamped by starstruck hobbyists looking for autographs.
If you didn’t know, a hobby horse is that timeless toy consisting of a stick with a plush, wood or plastic horse head at the top.
At first blush, hobby horsing appears odd, if not downright silly. But aesthetics aside, the athleticism is surprisingly rigorous. Contestants must smoothly clear hurdles that are sometimes over half their height while still holding their hobby horse between their legs, swapping hands after every jump.
Hobby horsing competitions follow many traditional forms of equestrian competition, from dressage (the odd, stiff horse-dance one) to hunter/jumper, wherein competitors guide their horse, hobby or standard, through a course, jumping over fences without knocking down the rails. This was the event in which Maiers took first place, beating out 47 competitors.
So if you happen to be in Dubuque, keep an ear out for the sound of two feet clopping along the sidewalk. You might be in the presence of a national champion.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2024 issue.
