Paying attention to each other, staying in rhythm and looking elegant at the same time: hobby horsing is not that easy. Photo: Enya Steinbrecher
The latter in particular requires coordination and relies on the calf muscles, because body tension is everything. In the group you also have to make sure to adjust the pace, because of course the whole thing should be nice to watch for the spectators – going it alone is not an option. Anyone who already knows hoofbeat figures from equestrian sports has an advantage in the freestyle, as it can be long and demanding and has to be performed from memory.
While the dressage exercises are more in the direction of gymnastics, jumping is about speed and of course about jumping as higher as possible than the others without breaking a bar. You’ll quickly work up a sweat here, because speed counts. But here too there is elegance jumping, where more emphasis is placed on cleanliness and elegance than on speed and height.
Careful handling is important
However, Tanja Kwiatkista doesn’t just value the sporting part: the trainer is herself an educator and movement therapist. In addition to the weekly training on Mondays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., the group also meets regularly on the weekends: Here we make our own hobby horses and the necessary accessories, go on hiking trails, and discuss personal problems and topics in the girls’ group.
It is important to her that the girls organize a lot themselves: This includes a tournament that the children organized themselves, but also doing their own research at home, because Kwiatkista is not a professional either: the group is self-taught about the hobby of horsing. The girls also learn things outside of sport: giving feedback, being careful with each other or having confidence in themselves: for example when they have to demonstrate something.
