WHAT IS A HOBBY HORSE?

WHAT IS A HOBBY HORSE? Yesterday, I referred to the proposition that American bonds are attractive as a “hobby horse” of mine. One of the purposes of this blog is to provide a place for my hobby horses, which my family would be subjected to if they were in my presence. A hobby-horse is defined as “an obsession of which a person won’t let go” by Wikipedia. Wikipedia has two different derivations for “hobby.” One entry derives “hobby-horse” from “hobby”, which was a border horse trained to cross difficult and boggy country. It supposedly became associated with the notion of a pastime because of the popularity of horse racing in the time of Henry VIII. I recently met a delightful man named Wes Hobby, who said that his surname went back to the time of Henry VIII but that it related to the king’s love of falconry. And Wikipedia has an entry on the hobby as a small falcon.