Suomeksi

Who is Semina?

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I'm Sonja Kallioinen, called also Semina, a 25-year-old hobby horse artisan and hobby horse event organizer from Espoo Finland, near Helsinki. 
I have been into hobby horsing 15 years already and made always my hobby horses on my own - already 600 unique ones. I'm coaching, organizing camps, competitions and other events and creating Youtube videos. I have been invited to dozens of events around the Southern Finland last years showing this hobby to others. 

Hobbies

I have been into equestrian sports since I was 10. Especially I have done dressage and long riding journeys, also some jumping. Nowadays I go ride only sometimes when I have time. I also love to draw, paint and move in the nature. Photographing hobby horses and creating videos are all very important part of my everyday life.

Work

I'm full-time entrepreneur in my company Semina Ltd (Semina Oy) and also running my company on my own. I started Semina Ltd in 2020 after high school and a year of studying Steiner education. I decided to choose path that takes a lot of time and effort but is also rewarding as I'm able to do what I like and what I'm good at! Hobby horses have always been a life style to me and I don't lack motivation even after 15 years. =)

Sonja Kallioinen

Semina's hobby horse Goldi

From a riding trip in Estonia

How did I end up in hobbyhorsing?

Sonja 5v

I got permission to start joining riding lessons in a horse stable as I turned 10 and same year I also discovered hobbyhorsing. I saw an article in a magazine of two girls who made their own hobby horses and were practising jumping with them. I was so fascinated by the idea and totally fall for it. 

I studied all kind of information about horses and equestrian sports and started to apply what I had learned in hobbyhorsing. I was improving my skills in both same time which supported well each other. 

I started to have hobby horse lessons for my friends and 2010 I had my first camp for five of my friends. I was super excited of the idea to start learning how to sew hobby horses but my mom was first to do it. She made my couple of my first horses following instructions of a handcraft magazine. My first hobby horse was called Danny - He was violet brown Finnhorse with star on the forehead. Soon Finnhorse Musta Prinssi and Fjord horse Jupiter were ready too. ​

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Little steps forward

First hobby horse I ever made was ready in just a couple of hours and it was such a horrible creature that sadly it's already passed away. I was very impatient and lacking sewing skills at first. But once I've started, there was no way back. I totally fall for hobby horse sewing and made a big pile of horses in a short timespan. I have settled up my own hobby horse stable. 

As my skills were getting better after a lot of trials and after about 200 horses, I was pretty happy with how it's started to turn out. I never studied sewing anywhere but I'm rather self-learned from countless fails and trails. 

I made my first commission hobby horses as a 14-year-old teenager because of some family friends asked for it. As 16 years old, I started to coach, organize courses and camps. I got into video making and found the magical world of hobby horses on instagram. I was determined of practising website building since I was 12.
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Here's Elf, one of Sonja's first hobbyhorses

Here are some of Sonja's first hobbyhorses over 10 years ago

Hobbyhorses start taking over media

2017 I was invited to many different events to show the hobby to people bringing my obstacles and hobbyhorses with me. 2018-2019 were filled with events where we drove around Souther Finland with my mom, sister and friends. Taking part of so many things was exciting time - sometimes I was put to talk to microphone in front of an audience or make a interview to radio. So my hobby had become so much more than it used to be. I started also focusing on Youtube more and more. It was so great and also confusing to see the hobby spreading around the world. Once it was just a hobby of a little girl that other people found quite odd and now it has become a quite phenomenon. 

Future plans

After 2020 I have organized a lot of camps, courses, competitions and other events and countinously made commission hobbyhorses and tack. Semina's stable has become like a hobby horse center with 2 stables, 40 horses, shop and fields. 

Semina's hobby horse center will grow in the future as it will move to a new place in Nurmijärvi! There will be even better space and possibilities for this hobby. Semina won't be moving far though, only 10 kilometers away from the current location. But the new place is under a long-period renovation. We are renovating an old house on the property with all my family over there and it's such a big project that no one knows when it could be ready. So for now all events will take place in the current spot in Espoo. 

If you are interested in following the renovation process, check out my Youtube channel for updates!