Teens in Finland are going gaga for ‘hobbyhorsing’

It is hot to trot!

Teen girls in Finland are going buck wild for the sport of “hobbyhorsing” — yes, those stuffed horse’s heads on sticks you played with as a kid.

As the horse hobby sweeps the nation, even grown women are taking up the reins, the AP reports, with one describing it as a “therapeutic” pastime.

“I’ve gone through lots of trouble and I’m still struggling with some issues. It has helped me a great deal that I can occasionally just go galloping into the woods with my friends. It somehow balances my mind,” said Alisa Aarniomaki, 20, who recently organized a hobby-horse parade through the streets of Helsinki.

Some 10,000 Fins, mostly between the ages of 10 and 18, have ponied up to the sport, where participants compete in traditional equestrian events like dressage and show jumping with toys instead of real animals.

Around 200 people competed in this year’s national championship, and a thousand people came to see them horsing around, the AP reports.

Even live horse lovers in Finland say it is no joke.

“We think it’s simply wonderful that hobbyhorsing has become a phenomenon and so popular,” said Fred Sundwall, the secretary general of the Equestrian Federation of Finland. “It gives a chance to those children and teens who don’t own horses to interact with them also outside stables and riding schools.”

But that doesn’t mean it is cheap — the junior jockeys can pay up to $200 for a particularly fine fake filly, which are typically hand-made.

“Freedom to create and imagination are key aspects into why people start hobbyhorsing,” said Aarniomaki.

A recent documentary on the fad, “Hobbyhorse Revolution,” shows enthusiasts putting their stuffed stallions to sleep under blankets at night, but the teens say they’re no foals.

“It’s very bizarre for other people to see, for the first time especially, this kind of stuff,” hobbyhorse coach Taija Turkki, 18, tells the AP. “Because they think we think the horse is alive, which we do not. We understand that it’s dead, made of fabric and all that.”