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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Winster_Hobby_horses_%26_mummers_%28small%29.jpg/350px-Winster_Hobby_horses_%26_mummers_%28small%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Old_Horse_from_Hooton_Pagnell_Hall_displayed_at_the_Maidstone_Museum_%2801%29.jpg/220px-Old_Horse_from_Hooton_Pagnell_Hall_displayed_at_the_Maidstone_Museum_%2801%29.jpg)
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
editFootnotes
edit- ^ a b c Cawte 1978, p. 117.
Bibliography
edit- 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.