Spending time with your equine partner, training, competing – it’s what we all love doing. And no less so when that partner is made of wood. Hobby horsing has exploded in popularity in the UK in recent years, not to mention in Europe and even further afield. Hundreds of young people – and adults – are training and competing every weekend. So what makes it so popular?
“It’s so much fun,” says 16-year-old Maisie Scaddan, who has been hobby horsing for four years, and has represented Britain at the hobby horse World Championships. “I saw a video of somebody hobby horsing, and a tutorial on how to make your own hobby horse, on TikTok. So I made my own out of cardboard, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
“At the time, my real pony was injured and I was bored, and I thought, ‘It’s still horse riding.’ I really enjoyed it and I’ve got lots of friends who do it too; we all meet up, or go to shows together and do pairs classes.”
When Maisie started there were only online shows in the UK but now there is an event somewhere in the country just about every weekend, attracting sometimes 100 people each.
Hobby horsers can compete in showjumping – judged on faults and time but also style; dressage – mainly freestyle to music featuring movements including half-pass and piaffe; gymkhana games, barrel racing and more. And for those with ambitions, the pinnacle is the World Championships in Finland, which runs in June.
Entry to this is by ballot; Maisie, who won three gold medals in showjumping at the 2025 British championships, was selected last year for the 70cm showjumping.
“There are lots of rules there,” Maisie says. “You need to be on the right leg, you can’t trot, only canter, you need to have the reins in the right hand, your horse needs the correct bit and you need the correct footwear. It’s a lot more strict!
“It was really good to go with my friends, and I got to meet loads of my favourite hobby horse influencers from TikTok too.”
Maisie Scaddan has represented Britain in hobby horsing at the World Championships in Finland
After-school training
Hobby horsing is of course a physical sport – Maisie showjumps up to 1m and she says riders have to keep training and competing to keep fit. There aren’t professional coaches here as there are in Finland so Maisie trains mainly in her garden after school, or video calls her friends and they do it together.
She says chase-me-Charlies are perfect for the athletic side, although she has yet to match the world record of clearing 1.52m.
Maisie has about 20 hobby horses who live in a hand-made wooden stable in her kitchen. Her favourite is Honka Limoncello – Lemon for short – and some she has made herself.
She still has her two real ponies too; retired April, and Timmy whom she showjumps – and she says her hobby horse jumping has improved her ability to see a stride on her real ponies.
“Most people do horse riding and they want to do even more horse time,” she says. “So they do hobby horsing too.
“It’s such a nice, friendly community; every time you go to a show, you make loads of new friends. I think it’s mainly the community that makes people want to do it. Lots of neurodiverse people really enjoy it – and it’s definitely cheaper than having a real pony!”
How to have a go at hobby horsing
The UK Hobby Horse Association can guide you to clubs and events in all parts of the country.
Hobby Horse Adventures also organises shows and camps, and sells accessories.
And hobby-horse.com has all sorts of information about how to get involved.
Zoe Brown ran her first hobby horse competition in 2024, after her daughter and her friends started hobby horsing but could not find shows to go to. Now Hobby Horse Adventures runs events every weekend, as well as a summer camp – and Zoe has given up her job to run it.
“It’s super-busy, the kids that do it absolutely love it and the parents who watch the kids doing it love what they’re seeing,” she says. “When we did the National Equine Show this year, we were overwhelmed.”
Zoe says the exercise and the associated feel-good chemicals it releases mean young people enjoy the sport – but it’s also the partnership with the hobby horses.
“They’re not just objects, it’s more than that,” she says. “They all have names and characters and they care for them, they’re partners.”
Zoe says many neurodiverse young people find their niche in hobby horsing but all competitors are immersed in it.
“You never see kids on their phones at our events,” she says. “And most of them do it as well as riding and being around horses, it’s natural. A lot are home-schooled, and some are in alternative education, they’re working with horses as therapeutic education.
“This is also therapeutic and my big dream is to go into schools and do it as PE lessons. If you get kids interested, once they have a go, they’ll love it.”
“I’m living the dream making hobby horses”
Lynne Acheson, of Laurel Designs, has been making hobby horses for about 40 years. She started with little horses for young children but now has a range of colours and types and sells all over the world, including to some very prestigious customers.
“The ones I make now are more realistic, and hand-painted,” she says. “They have leather bridles, with buckles and a bit, and they’re much more like a real pony, which these riders really like.”
Fancy a palomino in your stable? One of Lynda Acheson’s hobby horse designs. Credit: Laurel Designs
Lynne says demand has soared recently. Some participants buy mass-produced horses but hers are a labour of love, each made by hand with hours of work; positioning the frame, creating the shape, making the bridle and hand-painting every centimetre.
“I had one as a child, we all made them ourselves out of socks and those are really happy memories,” she says. “One day a girl came in with a beautiful one, the most desirable thing, and I was so envious of her. But now I’m living the dream, and it’s lovely to see the riders enjoying them.”
This week’s H&H magazine is our Junior Special with 48 pages for seven-to-14-year-olds who love horses and ponies – check out what else is inside, and if you’d like a copy find your nearest stockist or order a single issue for delivery by post
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