DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: What Is Hobby Horsing?

Hi Heart podcasts, hear more Kiss podcast playlist, and listen live on the free iHeart app. I want to talk to you about a new sport that I have discovered online.

And we're calling this segment down the rabbit Hole. It's where you like, find something super niche online and you just end up down the rabbit hole. You need to know everything about it. I have done that.

Then the algorithm spits it out and you just can't stop. It's like you see one once you thought it was a little bit interesting, and then all of a sudden, it's eleven o'clock at night.

You've been there for forty five minutes.

Now I feel terrible because it makes me laugh a ludicrous amount, Like I shouldn't be laughing this much.

It's actually quite impressive. Have you heard of hobby horsing? Yeah, you don't.

Even have to ask you, because you know I've been down that rabbit hole with you.

Yeah.

So if you guys are in the car listening now, you don't know what hobby horsing is. It's a sport that generally speaking, adults aren't doing like it seems to be teenagers and younger. And it is horse jumping and horse parading in horse.

Show without the horse, but there's no horse.

So it's in fact like think of when you're a kid and you get those broomstick horses, like where there's a broomstick there's got the horse head on it and had a rein and you would walk it around. Well, what they're doing is they're getting their horse and it's a competition where there's proper horse jumping. You have to parade it around, jump through all the what I don't know what they call, but you know where horse jumping

I've never hors ridden, so I don't know, but I think that the jumps are just called jumps, but I might be wrong. I'm also not a harsey person, so I don't know. So you sort of need to see this to believe it. But it's taken like a weird turn. Okay, I don't even know how to say it, and I feel guilty. It's not just show jumping. They start to

They like film the moment they take it off. I don't get it. I just don't get it. I want to also, I want to.

I've also seen a lot of this, and what I've taken from this is that the people who take hobby horsing very seriously on social media and I'm almost scared to talk about it for fear of falling into their wrath, are people who also really want a horse. So they really desperately want a horse. Horses are expensive, they're high maintenance, like you've got to have all of the stuff right to have a horse. A lot of people can't do it,

And the same as it's like exactly the same as dressage. If you want to watch dressage at the Olympics, you'd think you're watching up but there's no horse. But there is an aspect where I'm like, you guys are actually really incredible athletes, Like they run as fast as they can on their horse. They jump as high as they can. It's like they're doing high jump. What is the highest jumps. We've got their grace on record for hobby horsing.

The highest ordered hobby horse jump. Yeah, one point four one meters.

That's a big jump on two feet to run with a stick between your legs and jump one point four meters, Like, if you google it, it is impressive, But it's just hard to look past the fake horse for me. Like, I'm impressed by them, and I love their dedication. They train in their backyards, they have proper like dressage training, and I.

Think you're wrong.

You said it's only for teenagers and young girls.

Here's one for you. I'm Emma.

I begun hobby horsing when I was thirteen. I'm now forty seven. But friendships are strong. Just always surrounded by women. Obviously, this is my main horse, my really, as I say in America, my ride I die. This is grandmother. My name chapter my grandmother. It is a real competitive sport, like any other sport. They are bawling rollerblating football. Some people try to understand. I try to explain to the Americans.

We're gonna put that video up on the pick up because you do need to see it.

You need to see it to understand. I feel like we're not making fun of me. I don't know when not. It is a sport, it's people's lives. I love it. I encourage it.

There are outdoors, they're athletic.

I love it for them. I don't understand it.

It's impressive, it's competitive, and I'm not going to take anything away from that.

However, I do have a question.

At what point did it turn from just a group of people who really wanted a horse, couldn't have one, so then they got a bit fixated with their stick horse.

Why is that turned into a sport?

Why aren't there people walking their toy dogs on a leash walking down the street.

That's the way anything turns into a sport. Like I understand that. Literally, Like what's that sport where it's in the Olympics and you have to run and scrub the ice so that the puck curl and curling?

Like we're sorry, who thought that that was a good idea, Like, it's just the way we have a pastime do things popularity it becomes a sport. Do you think people get into these niche sports because they find a way to be really good at it because there's only like three people in the country that play it. What's the niche of sport you ever tried? I'm got a niche sports person water polo.

It wasn't me.

I tried to do some random, most random stuff. I wanted to be a fencer, so I started fencing. Then I wanted to do clay shooting.

But we were allowed to have guns, Like that was the whole thing I wanted to do, Like all the random left field sports.

Do you know what I'm getting from this? Produce grass?

I'm getting from this that like because Brits made it very clear she doesn't want to tease the hobby horses.

She spent a lot of time on this. What would you do if I bought you one? I reckon watch this space ten years.

Hobby horsing will be at the Olympics twenty years maybe Wow, all right,