What Is A Hobby Horse?

Hobby horse is one of those seemingly archaic terms that gets thrown around a lot and it’s often difficult to know what people are talking about.

My son the other day told me that someone had referred to something as their own personal ‘hobby horse’, but he was confused because they were not talking about something like the toy horse he had.

I laughed lovingly and did my best to explain what the person had meant, but his question did pique my interest, so I decided to collate some research on the question.

So, what is a hobby horse?

“Hobby horse” can have two meanings. One, it’s a child’s toy made of a stick with a model horse head on the end. On the other hand, people use the term metaphorically to describe a preoccupation or favorite topic—in other words, a hobby!

I may have laughed at my son but the fact is, I remember having the exact same question for my parents when I was young.

I think it’s even more confusing nowadays as actual hobby horse toys are far less common.

In any case, let’s break down a bit of the history of these things, where the terms come from and how they’ve changed over the years.

Where did hobby horses originate?

Hobby horses have a bit of a long history, and they weren’t always necessarily a children’s toy.

At other times in the past, what we might today call a pantomime horse (i.e., two people inside a horse costume for a play) would have been called a hobby horse.

Mummers plays in medieval Europe, and particularly in the United Kingdom, had a very long history of this sort of thing.

We have woodcut illustrations from as far back as 1542 from Germany depicting a child riding a wooden stick with a horse head on the end.

Folklorists definitely agree that the practice and the toy originated in medieval Europe, though it’s impossible to say where exactly.

Our oldest depictions come to us from Germany, but there could easily be older ones that have not survived.

Mummers’ plays, as I said, were popular everywhere but most so in England.

Here is where the term seems to have become intermingled with the idea of a favorite activity or something done for fun.

These types of plays were where everyone could get involved, and so people started referring to them as ‘hobby horses’ simply because they were fun.

So, medieval Europe certainly seems to be where these traditions originated, whether we’re talking about costumed people in a horse outfit or a child riding a toy horse.

What is the meaning of hobby horses?

So, even today, there are a number of different things you might be referring to when we talk about hobby horses.

So where do the actual terms come from?

It’s always difficult to say with absolute certainty, but the word seems to have originally come from Hobin, which was a variant of the name Robin which, folklorists think, was a name commonly given to carthorses.

So, from that point, the word ‘hobby’ essentially came to mean horse.

Typically, a smaller horse like a pony.

So, because at first it meant a small horse, it later became a natural way to refer to a toy horse.

Thus, thereafter, it came to mean simply any activity done for pleasure; a hobby!

So, this is where we get the term hobby.

People still often use the full phrase, ‘hobby horse’, to talk about something they very much enjoy doing.

It’s interesting how these traditions get passed down, and how the meaning has come to change.

It’s easier to imagine why people refer to their hobbies as hobby horses, because hobby horses were such a popular toy in medieval Europe.

Thus, it was some time in this period that the literal meaning of hobby horse and the metaphorical meaning became split.

How long is a hobby horse?

Hobby horses vary in size and type.

Children’s toy hobby horses are usually about 2 or 3 feet long, though it can depend obviously.

Different sizes are made for different ages.

Hobby horses in performances like mummers’ plays are generally about 6 feet long, since they need to accommodate two people.

Some of them get even longer, though, and are ‘driven’ by three or even four people!

Hobby horses can come in all different lengths, no matter which type we’re talking about.

So, it’s actually a lot less confusing than it can first seem.

You just need to remember the distinction between the actual toy, which is where the term originated, and the use as a general metaphor.

I know that for a lot of people today, they might not even know what you mean when you try to describe an actual hobby horse.

It probably sounds old and archaic.

But that is what they are, and the term is still in use all over the world.