2024, 2025, Fantasy, Games, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

It’s a Hobby

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When YA was seven, she wanted to be a “horse girl” for Halloween.  Took me a bit by surprise because she hadn’t shown any particular horsey interest up to that point.  We had fun putting the costume together.  Nonny bought the cowboy boots, I got her a hat and a stick horse.  The jeans and shirt she already had.  I still have that stick horse in a corner of my bedroom.

Imagine my surprise last week (while I was wasting time on my phone while Nonny did her morning exercises) when I stumbled on a website for Hobby Horse Championships.

This is a real thing.  It’s called “hobby horsing” and if you look it up on Wikipedia there is a note at the top, in italics, that says “Not to be confused with Hobby Horse polo”.  That made me snort coffee up my nose.  HHing was apparently born in Finland and started to make waves in 2017.  Most participants are young girls, between the age of 12-18.  Classic horse-loving demographic.  These days there are quite a few national competitions (most in Europe) and the largest gathering of 2024 was at the end of August in Finland.  The United States’ games were the beginning of August.

I doubt YA will be interested in this; her infatuation with horses ended after a couple of summer horse camps when she was in Girl Scouts.  But you never know.

YA’s stick horse needs a name.  What do you think?

40 thoughts on “It’s a Hobby”

  3. OT. Blevins update (Blevins page also updated)

    Lady in the Lake (Raymond Chandler)
    &
    Tom Lake (Ann Patchett)

    March 23
    2 p.m.
    Kathy & Jim’s

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  4. Rise and Gallop Into the West, Baboons,

    That horse looks like an “Oreo” to me.

    I had a stick horse as a very young child with an outfit made of a red cowboy hat and toy six shooters. I galloped miles and miles around town on that horse while pretending I was Annie Oakley. It was a well loved toy that sent me into a happy fantasy world.

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  5. Stybba is the name of a pony in The Lord of the Rings; it’s derived from the Old English for “stump”. Seems somewhat appropriate for a hobbyhorse.

    –Crow Girl

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  9. Oh my goodness, who knew? I had no idea that was a thing!

    I’m suddenly feeling grateful that I lived where I did when I went through that horsey stage, and that my parents indulged me that one thing. (They weren’t usually very indulgent at all.) I think I’ve told before about my two horses: Ben and Chief. They were a good experience for me. I still love horses.

    I’m not good at naming things like that, I guess. I can’t think of anything except “Stickley.”

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    1. I was in love with Arthur Godfrey’s horse “Goldie” who I saw in person at a rodeo in Omaha. Goldie did any number of tricks that enthralled me.

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  12. I didn’t have horse fever when I was growing up, although several of my friends did. I did read alot of the horsey books so I tend to go for names like Misty and Flicka and Stormy for the stick horse.

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  19. What do you call a horse with no legs?

    Neil

    Where do you find a horse with no legs?

    Right where you left him.

    What do you name a horse with two legs shorter than the other two?

    Eileen

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  21. If I’d tried any of those stunts with my stick horse as a child, my mom would have yelled at me that I was going to poke my eye out. It’s as strange as the people who play Quidditch in real life, running around earth-bound with their brooms.

    I’d name the hobby horse Uncle Toby, after the character in Tristram Shandy (I had to read it in college). In the book, “hobby horse” is a term for an obsession, and Uncle Toby’s obsession was recreating military battlefields in the lawn behind his house.

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