(You may find this a weird title to start with, but I promise it’ll all make sense very soon).

When we are young, we are encouraged to participate in a multitude of activities, whether those be different types of sports, social events, arts, etc., and we take them quite seriously. If you want to learn guitar, you have guitar lessons. If you want to pursue acting, you join a drama club. As a child, there’s always space.

Fast forward to adulthood, and suddenly the only things that we are supposed to focus on are work and relationships. Pretty much every “fun” activity is geared towards couples or families, and when you think of work, you are encouraged to be career-driven, focusing on climbing the ladder in order to get as much money as possible.

What I’ve found is that not many people actually find that fulfilling. We want to have hobbies and we want to have fun. Money isn’t everything, and you shouldn’t have to be in a relationship for you to feel comfortable going to different places or events.

During Covid lockdowns, a lot of people started picking up hobbies like crochet and have stuck with it. Over the past couple of years, I’ve joined various types of clubs and found that a lot of people join, mostly for the social aspect! It’s one of the main reasons that BookTok has taken off – people crave community.

So, where does this go to the make-or-break aspect of hobbies?

If you’ve read any of my recent posts, you’d know that I broke my foot horse-riding. Horses have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. Sadly, a few years back, I lost my own horse. I wasn’t ready to get another one as I don’t have my own land, but I still wanted to be around them, so I continued riding at the riding school where I first learned to ride as a little girl.

They are one of the highest-standard equestrian facilities I have ever experienced, and I was lucky enough that they offer riding lessons. Well, the last one was on a younger horse who didn’t really agree with the theme of jumping that day.

The result?

Having a complicated break in my foot that required surgery and left me house-bound (practically bed-bound) for two months. I’ve only recently started in a walking boot with crutches, but it’s a long road ahead.

There was one phrase that kept running through my head in the initial weeks, which is “this isn’t worth thirty minutes of riding a week”. The consequences that I have for the rest of my life are challenging, but they’re nowhere near as bad as they could be.

I love horses, and I do hope they will always be a part of my life. I still plan to have horses in the future. The key difference is that it’s not an ideal hobby for this moment in my life. There are other things I enjoy doing, and the risk, in this case, isn’t worth the reward.

If you’d have asked me three months ago, I would have said there’s no risk. I’m not riding at a competitive level, and these horses are well-trained. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson, and now that I’m getting older, the consequences physically tend to be more severe.

I’m not saying any of this to scare you, but I think it’s worth mentioning that when choosing a hobby for yourself, aim for something where the reward outweighs the risk. I’m lucky that people have been around to help me, but I don’t want to be in this situation again where I rely on people for the basics.

That isn’t to say I won’t go for a riding lesson again, but I’m pretty sure I won’t bother jumping. Instead, I’ll put more focus on my music and carry on developing my art skills.

There are so many wonderful outlets for relaxation or creativity that you don’t have to take up something that might literally break you. A hobby should be mostly fun.

That being said, if the way you feel doing something more physically demanding far outweighs the potential risk, then you should go for it! For some people, that half an hour of horse riding can be exactly what they need in a week. It was for me once upon a time.

Ultimately, a hobby should improve you. It should make you not break you.