<story><title>Finland’s Hobbyhorse Girls</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/europe/finland-hobbyhorse-girls.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>pjc50</author><text>So as an occasional (male) rider of real horses, there&amp;#x27;s something I&amp;#x27;ve always wondered about: how did the recreation become so gendered?&lt;p&gt;Up until about the middle of the 20th century there was still utilitarian and military horse riding. Men would learn to ride. Now it seems to be culturally associated almost entirely with young upper-middle-class girls or middle-aged women. Is this the result of toy marketing (My Little Pony from the 80s onwards), or high society, or something else?&lt;p&gt;What interests me about this Finnish subculture is that it&amp;#x27;s perfectly cloned the &amp;quot;horse culture&amp;quot;, just without any actual horses. It&amp;#x27;s very close to a cargo cult. Possibly Finland is too cold to have a regular horse culture?</text></comment>
<story><title>Finland’s Hobbyhorse Girls</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/europe/finland-hobbyhorse-girls.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>le-mark</author><text>My kids have these stick horses, a relative got them for a Christmas gift some years ago. They never play with them. The stick is long and counter balances the head so you have to sort of squeeze your legs together to actually ride the thing. Looks like these horses have shorter sticks, and are balanced so they&amp;#x27;re rideable in a much more natural way.&lt;p&gt;It certainly never occurred to me this simple refinement could make an annoying experience into something a kid could actually enjoy.</text></comment>