Happy New Year and after a twelve-year hiatus, welcome to the Year of the Horse. Horses (equine), just as with all other animals, have specific names for males, females and their young in English.
Stallion: an uncastrated male horse
Gelding: a castrated male horse
Mare: an adult female horse
Foal: a horse under a year old
Colt: a young male horse under four-years old
Filly: a young female horse under four-years old
Horses have been an integral part of human history and this is reflected in the many idioms referencing horses in the English language. Here are a few of the more common ones.
• Hold your horses: wait; be patient. –Hold yours horses; we’ll be there in a few minutes.
• Straight from the horse’s mouth: from the original, most reliable source. –I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. She told me directly that she quit her job.
• Beat a dead horse: waste time on a lost cause or argument that’s already over. –Stop beating a dead horse. He’s not going to change his mind.
• Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth: don’t be ungrateful for a gift. –Be thankful you got a present at all. Remember, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
• Eat like a horse: eat a very large amount. –Don’t take him out to dinner. He eats like a horse.
• Get off your high horse: stop acting arrogant or superior. –I wish she would get off her high horse and just do her job.
• Horse around: play roughly or fool around. –The boys broke the window when they were horsing around.
• Put the cart before the horse: do things in the wrong order. –Don’t put the cart before the horse by buying furniture before you’ve secured the apartment.
• Dark horse: an unexpected winner or contender. –She was a dark horse in the election. Not many people thought she would win.
• Horsepower: the measure of an engine’s strength compared to draft horses’ work capacity. –This car has over 400 horsepower. It’s a lot of fun to drive.
So, whether you are horsing around, beating a dead horse or eating like a horse, may 2026 be an equinecellent year for you. Erik