Come with me down into the cellar. Bring your flashlight. It’s dark down here but not spooky.
Aha! Here’s that box labeled Silly Sayings. It’s full of dust and cobwebs. Help me blow that off. On the count of three, let’s blow with all our might. One, two, three. Whew!! Dust and dirt everywhere. Let’s reach in and pull out a silly saying. Here’s one.
“Get off your high horse.”
I know what this means. It’s a request to someone to stop behaving in a haughty and self-righteous manner. To stop being stuck-up or arrogant. To stop thinking or acting like they are better than others. Where did this phrase come from?
Many, many years ago riders of high horses assumed a proud and commanding position. Indeed, that was the very reason they had mounted the…horse in the first place. The first references to high horses were literal ones. “High” horses were large or, as they were often known in medieval England, “great” horses.
The combination of the imagery of being high off the ground when mounted on a great horse, looking down one’s nose at the common herd [people] and also being a holder of high office [resulted in] the term…to mean “superior and untouchable.”
(This information is from phrases.uk.org)
Fun things to do
- What other words or phrases can you think of that mean the same thing as get off your high horse?
- I’ll help you start: High and mighty, high-handed, nose in the air
- A horse’s height is often expressed in hands. This comes from a very long time ago before we had tape measures. People used their hands, but everybody’s hands weren’t the same length. Eventually a hand was considered to be 4 inches and still is today.
- The overall average height of horses is 16 hands. (horsefaqs.com) How many inches is the height of the average horse?
- The horse’s height is measured at its withers. Where are the withers on a horse?
Here’s a boy showing you how to measure a horse two different ways:
- If you had withers, where would they be on your body?
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