Galloping, skipping and jumping through her Carmel neighborhood on a hobby horse, also known as a stick horse, Ava Apodaca, 12, knows her hobby is unique, and she welcomes the attention of onlookers.
Her YouTube channel @Haribo_HH has more than 41,000 subscribers and is the top hobby horse channel in the nation. Her goal is to inspire others through videos of her workouts, jumps and helpful tips. When she launched the channel two years ago, she had no idea what to expect.
“I started just to put some little videos of me jumping,” Ava Apodaca said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, people are actually watching my videos.’ I was like, ‘Alright, I want to start posting more.’ And then it started getting more popular.”
Hobby horse riding, a movement using plush horse heads made of fabric and stuffing attached to a stick placed between a person’s legs, dates back several centuries. The hobby gained popularity among 12- to 18-year-old girls in Finland within the past decade and more recently in the United States.
“They run around with horse-like movements, and they jump over hurdles, and they do dressage, which is more like ballet dance,” Ava Apodaca said.
Hobby horsers train to mimic the movements of a horse.
“The hardest part is training yourself to be able to jump high without having a bad form,” said Ava Apodaca, who learned about the hobby through YouTube.
Multiple victories
As her reach grew online, her desire to participate in a hobby horse competition seemed like a distant dream.
“I started seeing videos of people going to competitions and the Finland championships, but they’re all the way to Finland,” Ava Apodaca said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way I’ll ever be able to go compete there. That’s like, the other side of the world.’”
That changed when an internet search led her to the website for the inaugural U.S. National Hobby Horse Championships, held Aug. 10 in Amont, Mich. She signed up right away.
The event featured 200 participants, and Ava Apodaca placed fifth overall. But for her mom, Amanda Apodaca, the victory was in the support her daughter received. She said hobby horsing helped Ava through some challenges their family faced.
“To see the redemption power that occurred as we walked into that gym, and she spent hours signing autographs and hundreds of little girls knowing her name, cheering her on. It just is such a good reminder that sometimes, when you’re willing to sit in the tension of life, it’ll always work out. And it’s not just for us but we have an opportunity to touch people around us,” Amanda Apodaca said.
Competition categories included jumping hurdles, hunter jumping to judge, a high jump and dressage, a ballet style dance routine.
At five feet tall, Ava Apodaca jumped her personal best 4’11” in competition.
The event caught the attention of several national media outlets and will be part of an upcoming Netflix documentary about hobby horsing.
‘A path that’s far better’
While Ava Apodaca receives occasional negative comments on her YouTube channel, her mom encourages her to be true to herself and not think about the opinions of others.
“Many times, as parents, we want to lean in and push our children to do their best, but when you can step back and allow that drive and passion to come from within the child, it actually forges a path that’s far better than we as parents could ever dream of,” Amanda Apodaca said.
Amanda Apodaca said she sees the value of the channel and how it benefits other girls and boosts her daughter’s self-esteem.
“I think it just encourages them to keep hobby horsing. I get a lot of comments saying, ‘Ava, you encouraged me to go hobby horse outside today, like you inspired me to even hobby horse.’ So that just makes me happy,” Ava Apodaca said.
She said she enjoys riding real horses and hopes to compete in a grand prix someday.
Each horse is unique
Ava Apodaca received her first hobby horse, a special order by her mom from Finland, two years ago and now has 20. She gives each of them unique personalities and keeps them in her room. Most recently she sewed one for the first time. Completely self-taught, she mimicked the fabric and design of her existing horses.
There are no official rules to the construction of the horses, and they can be handmade or specially ordered for up to $300. Apodaca recently received a hobby horse from Ukraine that took six months to arrive.
“They usually have a bridle and accessories to make them more presentable and pretty,” Ava Apodaca said. The bridle also gives her something other than the stick to hold on to.
Her goal is to spread the word about and help people understand the hobby.
