Old Horse

Old Horse was a folk custom found in an area of north-eastern England. Geographically, the custom was found in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and part of Yorkshire. The tradition entails the use of a hobby horse that is mounted on a pole and carried by an individual hidden under a sackcloth. It represents a regional variation of a "hooded animal" tradition that appears in various forms throughout the British Isles.

The three Winster hobby horses and other performers, c. 1870

Old Horse head that mummers threw into a pond at Hooton Pagnell Hall in the 1880s

In geographical location and style it displays strong similarities with the Old Tup custom, but in the latter the hobby horse was presented as a goat rather than a horse. The Old Tup was largely found in the same area of England.^[1] In Derbyshire, the two customs are often recorded as existing in the same village.^[1] Old Horse was less common in Yorkshire than Old Tup, and also spread further into Nottinghamshire than the Old Tup custom did.^[1]

References

Footnotes

1. Cawte 1978, p. 117.

Bibliography

• Cawte, E. C. (1978). Ritual Animal Disguise: A Historical and Geographical Study of Animal Disguise in the British Isles. Cambridge and Totowa: D.S. Brewer Ltd. and Rowman and Littlefield for the Folklore Society. ISBN 978-0-8599-1028-6.
• Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1982-0570-8.