A hobby horse (or hobby-horse) is a child's toy horse, particularly popular during the days before cars. Just as children today imitate adults driving cars, so, in former times, children played at riding a wooden hobby-horse made of a straight stick with a small horse's head (of wood or stuffed fabric), and perhaps reins, attached to one end. The bottom end of the stick sometimes had a small wheel or wheels attached. This toy was also sometimes k...
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A hobby horse (or hobby-horse) is a child's toy horse, particularly popular during the days before cars. Just as children today imitate adults driving cars, so, in former times, children played at riding a wooden hobby-horse made of a straight stick with a small horse's head (of wood or stuffed fabric), and perhaps reins, attached to one end. The bottom end of the stick sometimes had a small wheel or wheels attached. This toy was also sometimes known as a cock horse (as in the nursery rhyme Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross).
A hobby horse is not always a riding-stick like the child's toy; larger hobby-horses feature in some traditional seasonal customs (such as Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in England), and they are constructed in several different ways.
The most famous traditional British hobby horses are probably those of the May Day 'Obby 'Oss festival in Padstow, Cornwall. They are made from a circular framework, tightly covered with shiny black material, carried on the...
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