The British Show Pony Society (BSPS) oversees various pony classes across the United Kingdom including Show Pony, Show Hunter Pony, Working Hunter Pony or Mountain and Moorland (adult riders included). But this year they’ve added a new division that will have riders hopping.
A Hobby Horse Championship class will be run at some of the BSPS events and will end in a Final during the organizations summer championships. “We hope that this will raise awareness of our extensive Children’s Entertainment programme at both the BSPS Summer and Winter Championships,” reads a statement on the group’s website .
According to an article in The Guardian, the hobby horse sport “involves riding a toy horse made from a wooden stick with one end decorated to look like a pony’s head. Riders – usually young girls – compete by trotting, galloping and cantering around a ring, sometimes leaping over jumps.”