The Gallop

The Gallop photographic series seeks to document the Hobbyhorse universe. A world in which hundreds of Finnish girls and teenagers ride and jump on a toy horse made of a wooden stick and stuffed head, imitating dressage and jumping. A sport in which young women fuse fantasy with athletics while the lower part of their body imitates the movements of a horse and the upper part remains upright like a jockey.

For years, this practice of the Finnish subculture has been considered a secret community subjected to stigma and bullying. Many of the girls lead a double life where their practice is a big secret they don’t like to share and belonging to this community makes them feel safe at a delicate time in their life when they are forming their identity.

Unlike in any other sport, it is the hobbyist themselves who organize everything related to the sport; the competitions to the creation of the horses, without the presence of a single adult in the whole process. And even if there are some rules when riding their horses, the way they practice the sport is free. Some of the girls have a realistic bond with their horses and they feed them every day, others give them names, a breed and a personality, others are focused on dressage, others on jumping, others are coaches and some others just sew horses that they later sell.