Hobby horse
From Freepedia
- For other uses, see Hobby horse (disambiguation).
A hobby-horse is a child's toy horse popular during the days before cars. Just as children today will imitate the grown-ups driving cars so, in former times, the children played at riding up and down on a wooden hobby-horse.
A larger hobby-horse is also a feature of Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in the British Isles. It is not always a riding-stick like the child's toy; it is more often a billowing cape with a mask on the front. The most famous mumming hobby horse is the 'Obby Oss' of Padstow.
By extension, a hobby-horse is also an obsession of which a person won't let go. For instance, if a person keeps on and on about income taxes being too high someone might say "oh, he's off on his hobby-horse again..."
