You are warmly welcome to the Hobbyhorse stable Semina's website!
I'm Sonja Kallioinen (Semina), 26 years old hobbyhorse entrepreneur from Finland Espoo.
I'm as well a hobbyhorse artisan as a hobbyhorse enthusiast myself. I've been making unique handcrafted hobbyhorses and many types of tack for them for 16 years already. I also organise hobbyhorse events like camps, competitions, coaching lessons and more.
I started this hobby 2008 inspired by some of the first enthusiasts and wanted to start growing this community with my own efforts. Years later this dear hobby became also a full-time work for me and takes the majority of my time.
Feel free to contact me via email [email protected].
I have a Youtube channel Kht Semina & I'm also active on Instagram and Tiktok.
I'm Sonja Kallioinen (Semina), 26 years old hobbyhorse entrepreneur from Finland Espoo.
I'm as well a hobbyhorse artisan as a hobbyhorse enthusiast myself. I've been making unique handcrafted hobbyhorses and many types of tack for them for 16 years already. I also organise hobbyhorse events like camps, competitions, coaching lessons and more.
I started this hobby 2008 inspired by some of the first enthusiasts and wanted to start growing this community with my own efforts. Years later this dear hobby became also a full-time work for me and takes the majority of my time.
Feel free to contact me via email [email protected].
I have a Youtube channel Kht Semina & I'm also active on Instagram and Tiktok.
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Semina's hobbyhorse center is located in Finland Espoo. The place is home for my extended family and same time a hobbyhorse center with stable buildings, Semina Shop, the main house and hobbyhorse sports fields & obstacles. The stables are filled with my 40 own hobbyhorses and tack. Part of the horses are private and biggest part of them are in public use in camps, lessons and events. The hobbyhorses have all their own breed, gender and personality. There are bridles, halters, blankets, leading ropes for all the horses and many other different tack also in the stable.
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What is hobbyhorsing?
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Hobbyhorsing, as some used to say, is a quite new hobby, started in Finland at the beginning of 21th-century. The hobby has recently grown to a real hobby with much more than 10 000's community of enthusiasts in Finland. Around 2015 it started to go international and nowadays it has spread already all around the world. Hobbyhorse itself, is not a new thing, but the hobby is. Children have played with stick horses as toys hundreds of years. But the hobby that some Finnish girls created, is about people who are creating beautiful artwork hobbyhorses by themselves and using them as different hobbyhorse sports created from imitating the equestrian disciplines.
While a stick horse is made to be like a toy horse for little kids, hobbyhorse is a figure for hobby and advanced sports. Hobbyhorse is always handmade and has been attached to a wooden stick that allows you to use it. The horse head is often made by certain kinds of fabrics, for example by fake fur. Sometimes hobbyhorses are also felted or made by wood. A original hobbyhorse's head is made by an old wool sock. Wool yarn is used as a mane. Horse's eyes and nostrils are usually made by leather or felt. However, there are loads of ways to make a hobbyhorse. The main point is that we are trying to create as high-quality and nice-looking hobbyhorse as we can. In order to manage, you need to be tolerant, accurate, skillful and, first of all, you need lot's of experience of making hobbyhorses. We also make all the equipment to hobbyhorses, like bridles, bits, reins, martingales, halters, ear bonnets, blankets and so on. |
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Hobbyhorsing is actually a really large concept while this hobby has so many sides. Imagination is one of the main points. There is hobbyhorse riding where you exercise different equestrian types like dressage, eventing, show jumping and western riding. Many enthusiasts also photograph their horses and share pictures on the internet - Usual enthusiast has an Instagram account and blog for hobbyhorsing. Some hobbyhorsists do videos to YouTube where they make a hobbyhorse, talk about hobbyhorsing or - as usual - exercise hobbyhorse riding, often doing dressage or jumping high obstacles. In addition, enthusiasts organise competitions and other events. The biggest competition is an annual Hobbyhorse Championships of Finland. Hobbyhorsing has even called a subculture.
There are plenty of people who just sew hobbyhorses and equipment and maybe they have a company. Those enthusiasts who ride with hobbyhorses, buy their hobbyhorses from the sewers. Usually nobody has toy hobbyhorses from the markets, except little children who yet play with them. As everyone understand, hopefully, we don't consider hobbyhorses as a real horse like a little child, hobbyhorses are just hobbyhorses to us. But, that doesn't mean that those fabric-piece-horses couldn't be really important and valuable to us. In the most case, a hobbyhorse can cost over 300 euros. The obstacles are often self-made by wood. There are also a couple of companies which do hobbyhorse obstacles.
Hobbyhorse is a piece of art and a sport supplement as well. Hobbyhorse riding can be an impression of feelings, like a dance; an intense performance of sport; or just relaxing way to go into the woods, jog, exercise and get some fresh air. In the other words, some are more goal-directed - they compete and accumulate rosettes and cups, while the others just train a little bit basics and go to the jogging path with their horse and may call themselves just "Sunday riders". Then, there are a lot of people somewhere between the "Sunday riders" and the competitors. Usually hobbyhorsists are teenagers, about 11-25 years old girls but there are also some boys and senior enthusiasts.
Hobbyhorse maker is also called the "breeder" of the horse and they have their own prefix representing their stable. The prefix is found in front of the fullname of a hobbyhorse. For example Semina's prefix is SE. Oscar-nominated director Selma Vilhunen has produced a documentary about the hobby, named "Hobbyhorse Revolution". There is also a clothes design for hobbyhorses that you can check out here: Brave Enough To Ride |
Semina's Hobbyhorses
Want to find out about our own hobbyhorses? Check them out here!
Last update: 16.01.2025
