Hobby Horse Videos
See what happens at our hobby horse events here. Even more hobby horse videos on our YouTube channel
What a Year so far…Hobby Horse Adventures was born Christmas 2023 and we ran our first competition February 3rd 2024. Since then we have run indoor and outdoor competitions throughout the year and around the UK. We became an online shop selling hobby horses, hobby horse jumps and accessories in April when we set up our new website. The work and fun never ends as I constantly have new ideas and new opportunities! Zoe, Elowen & Frank xx
Halloween Hobby Horse Competitions – we are very excited to announce that we will now include Hobby Horse Gymkhana Games at our Hobby Horse Events!! We have got the gear (and no idea!) and will commence the first round of games in Nottingham at one of our upcoming themed Halloween Hobby Horse Competitions. Then we will roll out the games to our other 3 halloween themed events at Cheshire, York and Sheffield! The kids can’t wait to trial the equipment both on our pony and then the hobby horses!
We have had the most amazing year meeting so many children who love hobby horsing. We all share the same passions and when we get together it’s really special. The kids are so lovely – it’s as if it’s not possible to be a nasty kid and also like hobby horsing. They all have kindess, compassion, imagination and creativity in common. Neurodiverse and Neurotypical socialise together with no differences between them. It’s very touching. I feel privileged to have played a part in building this community at our hobby horse competitions. We all reunite as friends at each competition and the children stay in touch in between.
I LOVE Hobby Horses and after all the events I have run, and all the horses I have seen, I think of myself as a bit of an expert now…. so it seemed an obvious step to start selling Hobby Horses to the children of the UK (and beyond!). In April of this year our new website launched to include an online shop. We sell various brands of hobby horses and hobby horse jumps. I build the stock and include new brands all the time and there is an exciting new brand coming on board soon selling hobby horses! Watch this space….. Order horses online, at shows or pre-book a viewing with me for a birthday or Christmas treat!
Many of the children who come to Hobby Horse Adventures Competitions identify as a therian. This is a little known condition where they identify with/as an animal sometimes a wolf, or a fox (or any animal I presume). My daughter Elowen is one… I think that there is a relationship between hobby horsing, therians, and also some neurodiverse children and I would love to know people’s thoughts on this as I can’t quite put it into words, but I feel like I understand it. What I like about therians is their relationship with nature, the outdoors, animals and kindess and bonds with animals. It’s really brought out the best in Elowen who spends a lot of time in the garden at night.. probably pretending to be a fox! She has met several therians at the hobby horse competitions and I am sure there are many more we just don’t know about yet!
Harrogate Riding School first saw us at our Hobby Horse Clear Round Area at Bramham Horse Trials this summer.
They saw us again at Weeton Country Show running Hobby Horse Classes in the outdoor working hunter arena.
Hobby Horse Adventures ran a trade stand at both these events (and other country fairs – Todmorden).
Harrogate Riding Centre are fans of hobby horsing and bought jumps off us at both events.
We were invited to host our first Harrogate event at the riding centre on 29th September. 40 kids came which was not bad for a first event.
We ran 2 rings throughout the day and return their for a Christmas Hobby Horse Fun Day with our Hobby Horse Gymkhana equipment on 14th December.
Bring your wallet if you want to buy a Christmas present! We take cash and card!
Cafe on site.
One thing we never expected when we started this journey was how many of the children that are drawn to hobby horsing happen to be neurodiverse. Not all, not by a long stretch, but a significant amount.
I set up Hobby Horse Competitions in the UK for my daughter Elowen as she could not find any here. I had no idea how popular it was.
With each Hobby Horse Competition, we met more and more children many whom have autism or ADHD.
We have had really positive feedback from parents that our events are more accessible than most team sports and competitions and we have built the business model around this.
We plan to be the calmest, kindest, structured, welcoming environment possible. Every child receives a rosette in every class they enter and we always celebrate the small things and give encouragement, as do all the children to one another.
Until now, there were no hobby horse competitions, open to all, in the UK.
Around Christmas time 2023 a couple of mums wanted to fix this and set up companies. Now, all these months later, it has spread across the UK with small centres, riding schools, pony clubs, horse trials etc. getting involved.
We have run Hobby Horse Competitions across the UK in so many venue’s and so many times now we have made some wonderful contacts along the way.
We have been supported by Crafty Pony, Shellys Handmade Hobby Horses, Ambers Pony Tales, Pony Creative, Rockstar Rocking Horse, LeMeiux to nae but a few…
They offer prizes for our raffles or classes and keep in touch to show support of what we are all collaboratively doing. We have become a UK Hobby Horse Network.
Elowen… all of this has always been about Elowen (age 11 now) and her love of hobby horses. I did what you all did, I bought her a handmade hobby horse horse for her birthday that she chose from Europe. Like you I could not believe the price but it seemed really important to her and that seemed to be the going price.
Soon I saw some of her closest friends had similar one’s and they wanted somewhere to ‘jump’.
We tried jumping in the arena at the local stables (most of our contestants have ponies or ride! – Go figure!). But th3e Insurance on stables is so strict that couldn’t be the solution.
I thought I ‘d book an arena and take them there.. and look where it got me!
Anyway, howlovely is it that she gets so much joy by just hacking through the woods.
In this video she is following a cross country course we ran at one of our outdoor hobby horse cross country days.
Weeton Show –
In our first year we ran Hobby Horsing at Bramham Horse Trials, Weeton Show and Todmorden Country Fair.
At every show we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies and dry weather.
Next year we hope to do more – we run classes all day for £5 a class or a clear round. This means beginners can come up and have a go.
We offer free loan ponies for the children to ride to warm up and jump.
Available for bookings for next year!
I am usually so busy judging the classes that I don’t get time to take much footage, so if you have any please send me it and I can create videos with it!
Here we were at Blackpool where we met some lovely kids.
We run a Best Turnd Out Hobby Horse at our shows and soon Hobby Horse Halloween Costume Competition at our next 4 shows and then a Best Turner Out Hobby Horse of the Year!
It’s a nice class that children who might not jump very high or run very fast bvut can still shine in other ways e.g. appearance and technique.
Bucket List –
This lovely lady was 50 this year and one her Bucket List was to Hobby Horse! She was so excited when she saw us advertise our first ever hobby horse competition in the UK.
She and her daughter travelled up for the weekend and stayed in a local hotel before attending our first event at Selby.
She was a good laugh and really enjoed it and gave us a good show! She doesn’t even ride real horses so good on her for borrowing all the gear!