1. The term hobby horse is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters
that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around
the world. They are particularly associated with May Day celebrations, Mummers Plays and
the Morris dance in England.
May Day hobby horses
[edit] Padstow
The Old 'Oss capturing a young woman during the May Day festival at Padstow, Cornwall
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 shoulders of a dancer whose face is hidden by a
grotesque mask attached to a tall, pointed hat. A skirt (made from the same material) hangs
down from the edge of the frame to around knee-height. There is a small, wooden, horse's
head with snapping jaws, attached to a long, straight neck, with a long mane, which sticks out
from the front of the frame. On the opposite side there is a small tail of horsehair.
There are two rival horses and their fiercely loyal bands of supporters at Padstow: the Old
'Oss is decorated with white and red, and its supporters wear red scarves to show their
allegiance; the Blue Ribbon 'Oss (or "Peace 'Oss") is decorated with white and blue and its
supporters follow suit [3]. A "Teaser" waving a padded club dances in front of each 'Oss,

2. accompanied, as they dance through the narrow streets, by a lively band of melodeons,
accordions and drums playing Padstow's traditional May Song. The 'Osses sometimes capture
young women beneath the skirt of the hobby horse; often they emerge smeared with black.[5]
Children sometimes make "Colt" 'Osses and hold their own May Day parades.
http://www.nicolaslattery.com/1363/index.html
Meaning
A favourite topic that one frequently refers to or dwells on; a fixation.
Origin
The first things that were referred to as hobbies were in fact horses, of a
breed that was popular in Ireland in the Middle Ages and is now extinct.
The Scottish poet John Barbour referred to them as hobynis, in the
narrative poem The Bruce, 1375. In Reliquiae Antiquae, a poetic work of
Barbour's from around 1400 and republished in 1841, he referred to them
again, this time with a little more context:
And one amang, an Iyrysch man,
Uppone his hoby swyftly ran,

3. English mummers, morris dance teams and
minstrel groups began performing with characters (often children) dressed
in wickerwork and cloth costumes, made to look like stylised horses - not
altogether unlike the present-day pantomime horses. These 'hobby-
horses', which took their name from the Irish breed, are still to be seen as
part of the English folk tradition, notably at the annual 'Obby 'Oss festival,
celebrated each May Day in Padstow, Cornwall. This custom dates back to
at least the 16th century, when a payment for a performance by a hobby-
horse was recorded in the Churchwarden's Accounts of St. Mary's Church,
Reading, 1557:
Item, payed to the Mynstrels and the Hobby~horse on May Day, 3s.
As time went by, the name hobby-horse was given to numerous other
things; for example,
A loose woman or strumpet:
William Shakespeare, Loves Labour's Lost, 1588 - "Cal'st thou my love
Hobbi-horse?"
A child's nursery toy:
George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, 1589 - "King Agesilaus,
hauing a great sort of little children... tooke a little hobby horse of wood
and bestrid it to keepe them in play."
A dance, similar to the stage antics of the mummers' horses:
Richard Lassels, The Voyage of Italy, circa 1668 - "Women like those that
danced anciently the Hobby-horse in Country Mummings."
A favourite pursuit or pastime - later shortened of course just to
hobby:

4. Sir Matthew Hale, Contemplations Moral and Divine, 1676 - "Almost every
person hath some hobby horse or other wherein he prides himself."
A wooden horse fixed on a ‘merry-go-round’:
Gray's Letters and Poems, 1741 - "A Fair here is not a place where one
eats gingerbread or rides upon hobby-horses."
A velocipede, on which the rider proceeded by pushing the
ground with each foot alternately; also called a 'Dandy-horse':
The Gentleman's Magazine, February 1819 - "A machine denominated the
Pedestrian Hobby-horse... has been introduced into this country by a
tradesman in Long Acre."
It is the 'favourite pastime' version of the name, what we now call simply
'a hobby', that was adopted as a figurative expression meaning 'a fixation;
a thing one keeps coming back to', i.e. similar to having a bee in one's
bonnet.
So, a hobby is really a hobby-horse. If by any chance you occupy your
spare time studying 13th century Irish livestock, your hobby-horse might
just be a Hobby horse. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hobby-
horse.html
A Brief History of Hobby Horses
Dressing up in animal disguises is an activity which is widespread across many
cultures worldwide and no doubt goes back to ancient times. However the ancestry
of the English Hobby Horse can, at best be traced back to the sixteenth century
when we come across references to men and boys capering round dressed as
tourney horses ( a frame carrying a horses head at the front and a tale at the back,
draped in fabric and worn about the waist).

5. The setting for these performances was at first the kind of tournaments, masques
and pageants that the Elizabethan court delighted in. As today Royal patronage was
a powerful trend setter and similar celebrations were taken up by civic authorities
and trades guilds. In the latter half of the sixteenth century processions around
towns as large as Norwich and as small as Banbury could be seen, including in the
line up hobby horses and morris dancers.
As the popularity of these events began to wane the hobby horse operators and the
morris dancers formed an unofficial alliance and perpetuated a practice which had
become a useful way of raising a little extra income. As the seventeenth century
wore on pressures from puritan communities and other economic and social factors
lead to a further reduction in the number of performances seen and the dancers and
horses retreated in many cases to rural communities where they could be
considered to be out of sight and out of mind!
The heartland for morris dancers became the Cotswolds where by the mid
nineteenth century there was something like one hundred and fifty different teams
in operation, the nearest being Adderbury.
The hobby horses had fled to even more remote parts such as the coastal villages of
Minehead and Padstow in the West Country. Other forms of horse and animal
disguise of doubtful origin such as the Hooden Horse in Kent and the Mari Llwyd
in South Wales also lingered in remote communities.
Even these few remnants of traditional festivities were in danger of dying out at the
start of the twentieth century when academics of various persuasions started to take
an interest and collect information about what they, erroneously, saw as relicts of
ancient pagan customs.
Their efforts lead to a revival of interest in ‘folk’ music and dance which has
continued to this day. The revivalists also reunited the morris dancers and hobby
horses to form a new spectacle. Interestingly enough there are probably more
hobby horses and certainly more morris teams performing now that at any time in
the nation’s history!

6. http://www.kickback.btinternet.co.uk/Town.Horse/Town.Horse.html#Anch
or-horse-49575