Give it some stick

Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart

- Sybilla Hart

HOBBY-HORSING, a craze that has been popular in Finland since the early 1990s, was recognised on our shores earlier this year when the British Show Pony Society announced that it was to embrace the hobby horse craze' and hold an official competition for the sport, with a $300 prize pot. This nod of approval has paved the way for further regional competitions in the UK. The sport, it seems, is hot to trot.

Anyone can own a hobby horse (it simply comprises a fluffy toy horse's head on a stick), but there's more to the sport than meets the eye. A high level of agility, fitness (some jumps are as high as 3ft) and coordination is required to trot, canter and gallop along on the equine equivalent of a broomstick. All of this without early mornings, laborious yard work and eye-watering vet bills-what's not to like?