What is a cock horse and where is Banbury?

What is a cock horse and where is Banbury?

Riding a cock horse is not exactly as recreational as it sounds (Picture: Getty)
If someone tells you to ride a cock horse, don’t take offense. They’re not necessarily being rude.

A cock horse is one of many possible things, all of them perfectly innocent.

There’s even a lovely nursery rhyme about the cock horse being ridden by a fine lady.

So what is a cock horse and where does it come from?




Two illustrations that go with the rhyme (Picture: Wiki Commons)
A cock horse is a phrase that comes from around the 15th century.

It can mean a high-spirited horse, though it can also mean an entire or uncastrated horse.

A cock horse may also refer to the additional horse to assist pulling a cart or carriage up a hill.

From the mid-sixteenth century it came to mean a pretend horse, or hobby horse, too – or an adult’s knee (presumably something which is sat upon).


The statue of the fine lady on her cock horse in Banbury (Picture: Wiki Commons)
We know of the cock horse because of the nursery rhyme that goes:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.

There is an alternative version of the main rhyme which goes:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To buy little Johnny a galloping horse;
It trots behind and it ambles before,
And Johnny shall ride till he can ride no more.

Many more verses, and alternative versions, exist.

The rhyme was first published in 1784 but had been sung for hundreds of years hence, always with the same opening line.





Banbury Cross is located in the historic market town of Banbury on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, and there is a statue of the fine lady on her cock horse at the very spot, though the cross itself was taken down in 1600.



Nobody quite knows who the fine lady of the rhyme is, though speculation has pointed towards Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Godiva, and Celia Fiennes, whose brother was William Fiennes, 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele of Broughton Castle, Banbury (hence ‘fine’ lady).

The horse’s identity also remains unconfirmed, probably because he was embarrassed about his nickname.




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