11-year-old Nuala presses the nose of a plastic dog on her desk. She begins to sniff, once, twice, then barks loudly. She imitates a hunting dog that takes on the weather of a runaway horse - another plastic figure from Nuala's huge toy collection. Suddenly she lets the dog jump off, grabs the figure of a young woman and shouts in a frightened voice: "Chester, look for Cookie! Quick, follow!"

What sounds like a typical scene in the nursery of an 11-year-old child, is actually the highlight of the multi-part equestrian series "Wild and free", which Nuala herself has come up with. Every week she films a new episode which she then publishes on her YouTube channel "Nuala's Horse Farm Sunshine".

More than 11,000 subscribers watch it while playing, the comment section of each new video is filled up quickly. Countless heart and kiss mouth emojis almost invariably line up with elation such as "You're the best YouTuber, and I love all your shows," or "Please go wild and free, I love this show."

Hours of shooting

One compliment is particularly common: "I think it's good not to see your fingers." Nuala is proud of that: "I pay close attention to it, and if you look at me while I move the figures, I'll re-record, I'm picky." The 11-year-old invests several hours in the recording and editing of her videos. She turns camera shots in the midst of huge self-built horse farm cardboard backdrops, changes from close-ups to pursuit perspectives and thinks up different voices for the numerous plastic performers.

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Children's play with thousands of spectators: The horse girls from YouTube

Your community appreciates this effort very much: Nuala has been filming for just under two years, after just a few days she has already cracked the 100 subscriptions, and since then, an average of 150 new ones have come along every day. Nuala's mom still remembers her daughter's YouTube channel quickly becoming the centerpiece of the family: "We were just amazed, constantly updating each other after school or work on how many subscriptions have come back. We constantly have phrases like 'wow, 50 more!' thrown. "

Who these viewers are, can only roughly determine Nuala: In their livestreams, the majority of their fans classified somewhere between nine and 16 years, while the channel statistics will also detect hundreds of adult spectators. Nuala's mother has a possible explanation for this: "I can imagine that these are also the children who use their parents' computers, but it is much more fascinating where the subscriptions come from: According to YouTube, they are not only from German-speaking countries, but also from USA, Russia, Canada, Romania, which is a bit scary for me, who watches it all, but Nuala is just proud of it. "

A new generation of YouTube stars

With her hobby Nuala is not alone: ​​who follows the channel recommendations and comments of the 11-year-olds, encounters dozens of other channels, which are operated exclusively by girls and fed by them with equestrian stories. "Couragous Sam" (19,000 subscribers) and "Cavallo # Love3" (34,000 subscribers) are among the largest channels of this kind: they also tell in several mini-series classic equestrian stories, which are about the taming of wild horses, romances between farm employees or the Living together the animals in a stable.

Thousands of viewers watch, much like Nuala's YouTube channel, eagerly for each new episode, voicing their wishes for upcoming issues and praising the different voices that the creators lend to their characters.

In addition to the common scene, this community of the YouTube horse girls but still something - and the company Schleich, whose toy models are used almost exclusively in the videos.

Nuala has been collecting these stealth figures for years. In a video, she proudly shows her collection: On her bed she has spread several people, dogs and horses made of plastic, well over 250 figures, according to Nuala meanwhile be. But the creativity of the 11-year-olds does not end with the purchase of new characters: she regularly repaints the animals and livestreams these "repaints" for their community, who can then wish in real time, which new color to get the coat of their favorite horses.

Even children write hate comments

From time to time Nuala has to read harsh comments, which do not have much to do with constructive criticism. "There are always a few people who say that a scene looked like shit, and some have insulted me with bad words," says the 11-year-old.

Usually, however, Nuala does not have to worry about those hate comments or their authors, as the mother of the YouTuber explains: "Nuala is automatically defended by her viewers when something bad comes in. The 'real' fans then verbally beat on top of it."

Nuala is supported offline not only by her mother, but also by many school friends. Her girlfriends watch the riding show videos and praise the 11-year-old for particularly exciting series episodes. Only now and then she is annoyed by some boys, because she plays with horses. But Nuala is now casual and self-confident: "I'm not interested in that, because I enjoy doing it and if that does not like them, then I do not care."