Teenage World Hobby Horse gold medallist hits back at trolls branding her sport "stupid"
A Hampshire teenager represented the UK in the World Hobby Horse Championships and is a national gold medallist - despite trolls branding her sport "stupid".
Maisie Scaddon took up the sport three years ago and went on to go the world championships in Seinajoki, Finland in June 2025 - where she placed 34th out of 50.
The 16-year-old has won three gold medals for show jumping and a bronze in freestyle dressage at the UK Hobby Horse Championships in October last year. But her success hasn't come without judgement and Maisie has had to deal with trolling and nasty comments - some even called her mum a "bad parent" for allowing her daughter to take part in such a "weird and silly" sport.
Mum Molly Wilson, 47, from Fareham, says it's only made Maisie more determined to publicise her sport.
Molly, a veterinary nurse, said: "A lot of people online have been quite mean to Maisie about hobby horse and after we appeared on TV last year.
"We did ITV This Morning and BBC breakfast and we had over 1,000 nasty comments saying that Maisie was weird and that I was a bad mum for putting her on TV and doing something that was clearly really silly.
"They think it's people just leaping around and making a noise on a toy horse.
"It's just kind of made Maisie more determined to publicise hobby horsing in order to show people that it's a really serious sport.
"Recently at a show in Solihull, there were 104 children, a lot of them are neurodiverse.
"It's the only place where they really feel they can be themselves and so Maisie is very keen to promote it because it's such a welcoming and inclusive community where everybody can have fun and everybody's accepted."
Maisie, who originally shared her story with Talk To The Press, said: "I was really proud to represent the UK at the World Hobby Horse Championships.
"I'm looking forward to competing at the national championships and really developing my skills and seeing how far I can go with hobby horsing."
Maisie got into the sport after spotting Finnish competitors on TikTok. Molly has since changed her working hours to support her daughter's busy schedule - which sees her practice with the real and hobby horses every day after school. To be approved to represent the UK, you need to have demonstrated that you can jump at a certain height and prove you can complete the course and all the elements.
Competitors are awarded for speed, precision, posture, energy, and the overall quality of their riding as they race around a timed course, atop of their wooden horse, taking on jumps, from 20cm to 70cm.
Maisie practices for competitions by doing practice runs in the garden, where she has jumps set up to help her improve the heights she can clear, as well as choreography and refinement of her dressage routines.
She balances it while studying for her GCSEs before starting a college course on animal management and also training and competing on her real horses each weekend alongside her hobby horsing.
It helps her with her real horse competitions, as much of the skill and tactics are shared between the sports.
And the teen is now a brand ambassador for the three main hobby horse clubs in the UK, and acts as a mentor for younger competitors - many of whom message her on social media asking for advice on training.
Molly said: "We've got 20 hobby horses at home and we've got a set of jumps up in the garden and so she does a lot of training and we've got lots of shows planned - probably two hobby horse shows a month that we go to."
Maisie now has her sights set on another world championships in 2027 - as her GCSE's will take priority this year. Her next big goal is preparing for the UK Championship show in November 2026, which she has to qualify for throughout this year - where she will hope to defend her show jumping titles, and improve in dressage.
Hobby horse dressage is based exactly on what the real horses do in a Grand Prix dressage routine, like the Olympics, and contain steps such as Piaf and canter pirouettes.
Similarly with hobby show jumping, competitors try to find the best route to be the quickest around the course, making tight turns and saving the seconds on the timer, which is tactically mirrored in real horse show jumping.
There are a range of international competitions across Europe and America, where competitors of all ages and genders take part.
Maisie and her mum are keen to expand this further, especially in the UK, where Maisie is one of only a few over 18 competitors.
She said: "If you wanted to try hobby horsing, you would get a big welcome, and find that it's very addictive.
"People might perceive it as being a bit weird and a bit odd but if you watch how much effort the competitors are putting in and what they're achieving, I think people would be really pleasantly surprised."
Maisie hopes to progress to a veterinary nursing apprenticeship but insists hobby horsing won't take a back seat.
For information you can visit the Hobby Horse Competitions UK Facebook page or the UK hobby horse Association and Hobby Horse Adventures websites.