About Hobby Horse Adventures
About us...
Hobby Horse events in the UK started when Elowen (10) started asking me to take her to Hobby Horse competitions in the UK after she had seen some online, in Finland.
At first she just just saved up to buy handmade horses usually imported from abroad or beautifully hand made by the few UK sellers they are.
Our garden was (and still is!) a wasteland of poorly constructed jumps made out of plastic chairs and sticks and play equipment upended to create a hobby horse jump! Her and her friends starting calling round to play with their horses and heading out on hacks to the local park.
I never like to ignore an opportunity to encourage fun, so I looked into local competitions and found at that time there were none. I looked at Finland and earmarked the weekend thinking I could make her dreams come true and take her. She wanted to enter which I thought was a bit far fetched. When I looked into flights I could not find an airport anywhere near the Finnish Championship and the trail ran cold.
My kids were running round our local stable arena with other kids on the yard jumping horse jumps. I didn’t want them to hurt their legs on the wooden poles and started thinking. The children were asked to stop for health and safety reasons to do with it being a working stable yard as much as anything else.
We attend local pony shows and a kids pony club (not THE pony club) event regularly. I wondered if I could hire an arena for Elowen and her friends so that at least had somewhere to go as a one off. The cogs started turning… I suggested to friends at our local stables that perhaps we could put our heads together and run an event and see if anyone else wanted to come from local yards and round-about. I think they thought I was mad and I got a few funny looks and rolled eyes…
By the next day I had convinced my friend Lisa and her daughter Lucie to help me run the activities and come up with ideas and voila, Hobby Horse Adventures was born. Elowen came up with the logo and name in her bedroom, in about 5 minutes. I was suggesting Acadamy and Events, but she wanted something more fun.
We launched the Facebook advertising late December and were amazed at the instant and many responses we got. Everyone had the same story – kids doing it in the house and garden with nowhere to go – considering Finland. So we knew we were on to something.
Since then it has been a whirlwind of constant ideas and opportunities. Lisa handles the admin, Lucie comes up with the courses and lay out and judges along with my step daughter Violet. I do the marketing and Elowen arrives, hobby horses and leaves…. but she does say Thank you Mum, I Love You and I had a wonderful time today.
The 4 of us ‘run’ the company whilst also having 5 horses (me 1, Lisa & Lucie 4!).
Many of the children who come are from an equine background but just as many are not. We are very equine themed but there is nothing to stop someone picking a hobby horse up for the first time having never ridden a horse.
Our team work day and night to advertise and prepare for the events. We are always looking for new regions, new venues, new companies and people to share and support what we are doing.
We are a friendly bunch and enjoy making all the children so happy.