Horsing Around with 10 Horse Idioms
Do you like horsing around? We sure hope so, because it’s the year of the horse!
And what better time to explore 10 idioms about horses, just like that phrase “horsing around.” That horsey turn of phrase comes from watching young horses while they play. Colts and fillies love being rowdy and goofing around! They run, buck, kick, and nip.
It’s called “horseplay” for a reason! So let’s be silly and goofy as we explore nine other phrases about horses.
1. Hold your horses! Picture a team of horses who are eager to pull a wagon - they’re chomping at their bits and raring to run! So when someone tells you to hold your horses, they’re telling you to pull the reins back: you’re not ready to go galloping ahead just yet!
2. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. If a horse isn't thirsty, there's nothing you can do to coax it into taking a drink. So when someone says, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” it means you can try to help someone, but you can't make them do something if they don’t want to.
3. Straight from the horse's mouth. Before a race, gamblers like to gossip about which horse is most likely to win. They feel the most trustworthy tips come from those closest to the horses: stable hands, trainers, and jockeys. But for a fun twist, gamblers joke about an even more authoritative source: the horse itself! So when someone says they received a tip “straight from the horse’s mouth,” it means that they got their information directly from the source.
4. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Imagine someone gives you a horse, and the first thing you do is look in its mouth to see how old it is or if it’s in good health. How rude! So when someone says, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” they’re reminding you to be grateful and say “thank you” instead of trying to figure out the value of your gift. And because horses’ teeth get longer as they age, that’s also where we get the phrase “long in the tooth” to mean someone’s getting old!
5. Put the cart before the horse. Horses don’t push wagons from behind: they pull them from out front. If somebody tells you, “Hey! You’re putting the cart before the horse!” it means you’re doing things in the wrong order. They’re asking you to readjust your priorities!
6. Wild horses couldn't drag me away. This is a dramatic way of saying “I’m really committed to this!” It means, “I’m not leaving, not even if something strong and determined like a pack of wild horses tried to pull me.” And of course, the Rolling Stones made the phrase even more famous in their song “Wild Horses.”
7. Beat a dead horse. Imagine a horse had just finished running a race. There’s no point in urging it to run faster, because the race is over. It’s done: it’s a dead race. So if someone says “you’re beating a dead horse,” it means you keep talking about something or trying to fix something that’s already finished! They’re reminding you to stop repeating the same thing when it won’t change anything.
8. Get off your high horse. In medieval Europe, high-ranking military leaders and royalty rode tall warhorses. Everyone else walked! So when someone was “on a high horse,” it meant they thought they were elevated above others and had more social status. If someone tells you to “get off your high horse,” it means they think you’re acting self-important and superior. They want you to stop being arrogant and get down to earth. And of course, “getting down to earth” is a related horse idiom that means “be humble.”
9. Change horses in midstream. Switching horses in the middle of a river is a bad idea. You could slip, fall, and get swept away! It’s better to switch when you’re safely across. So when Abraham Lincoln was running for President during the American Civil War, he used a variation of this phrase in his campaign. It means, “during a crisis, stick with the plan (or the leader) until you’re safe.” Today, we still say the phrase to mean “finish what you’re doing before you switch to something else!”
Now it’s your turn: try using one of these horse idioms in a conversation. Practicing with real examples is a great way to horse around with language!
