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Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

Horse

A borrowed horse and your own spurs make short miles.Danish.

A fast horse does not want the spur.

A fidging mare should be well girthed.

A galled horse will not endure the comb.

A gentle horse should na be o’er sair spurr’d.

A good horse cannot be of a bad color.

A good horse is worth his fodder.Dutch.

A good horse never lacks a saddle.Italian.

A good horse resembles a superior man.Chinese.

A hard bit does not make the better horse.Danish.

A hired horse and one’s own spurs make short miles.German, Dutch.

A horse deprived of his food won’t work.Latin.

A horse grown fat kicks.Italian.

A horse is his who mounts it, a sword is his who girds it on, and a bridge is his who passes it.Turkish.

A horse is neither better nor worse for his trappings.

A horse may stumble though he have four legs.Italian, Dutch.

A horse that will not carry a saddle must have no oats.

A kick from a mare never hurts a horse.

A man may lead his horse to water, but cannot make him drink.

A race horse is an open sepulchre.

A runaway horse punishes himself.Italian.

A scabbed horse is good enough for a scabbed knight.

A short horse is soon curried.

A thorough-bred horse is not disgraced by his bad saddle.Syriac.

All lay load on the willing horse.

An hired horse tires never.

A lean horse does not kick.Italian.

An old horse for a young soldier.French.

Another man’s horse and your own spurs outrun the wind.German.

Another man’s horse and your own whip can do a great deal.Danish.

Be a horse ever so well shod he may slip.French.

Better a poor horse than an empty stall.Danish.

Better ride a good horse for a year, than an ass all your life.Dutch.

Better ride a lame horse than go afoot.German.

Blind bridle can’t hide de fodder stack from de lean horse.African American.

Cavalry horses delight in battle.Chinese.

Do not spur a free horse.

Every foal is not like his sire.Danish.

Furniture and mane make the horse sell.

He is a weak horse that mauna bear the saddle.

He is an old wheel horse; i.e., entirely reliable.

He that hires the horse must ride before.

He that would have good luck in horses must kiss the parson’s wife.

He who buys a horse buys care.Spanish.

He who has a good horse in his stable can go afoot.German, Italian.

Hired horses make short miles.Dutch.

His horse’s head is too big; it cannot get out of the stable.French.

Horse, don’t die yet, grass is coming.French.

Hungry horses make a clean manger.

If the mare have a bald face the filly will have a blaze.

If you don’t break the colts, you’ll have no wheel horses.

Ill matched horses draw badly.Dutch.

In a wind, horses and cows don’t agree.Chinese.

It does not depend on the dog when the horse shall die.Danish.

It is a bad horse that does not earn its fodder.

It is a good horse that never stumbles.French.

It is a poor horse that is not worth his oats.Danish.

It is an ill horse that will not carry his provender.

It is ill to set spurs to a flying horse.

It is no time to swap horses when you are crossing the stream.Abraham Lincoln.

It is the bridle and spur that make a good horse.

It’s a very proud horse that will not carry his oats.Italian.

Lay the saddle on the right horse.

Let a horse drink when he will, not what he will.

Let the best horse leap the hedge first.

Like a loader’s horse that lives among thieves.

Like a miller’s horse that goes much but performs no journey.

Like Flanders mares, fairest afar off.

Live, horse, and you’ll get grass.

Never ride a free horse to death.

Never spur a willing horse.Italian.

No horse is so good but that he will at times stumble.Latin.

No need to say “trot” to a good horse.Italian.

One thing thinketh the horse and another he that saddles him.

One whip is good enough for a good horse, for a bad one not a thousand.Russian.

Restive horses must be roughly dealt with.

Seldom lend your horse to a sailor, never to a Frenchman and as little as you can to any one at all.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.

That horse loves the hay better than the saddle.

The best feed of a horse is his master’s eye.Spanish, Dutch.

The biggest horses are not the best travellers.

The blind horse is hardiest.

The common horse is worst shod.

The horse does not spring from the slow-paced ass.Latin.

The horse is not judged of by the saddle.Chinese.

The horse must go to the manger and not the manger to the horse.Danish.

The horse never turns its back on its master.Chinese.

The horse next the mill carries all the grist.

The horse of Servis. (An unlucky possession.)Latin.

The horse that draws best is most whipped.French, Italian.

The horse that draws his halter is not quite escaped.

The horse that pulls at the collar is always getting the whip.French.

The horse thinks one thing and he who rides him another.Spanish.

The horse’s best allowance is his master’s eye.Portuguese.

The horses eat oats and don’t earn them.German.

The impetuous steed will not brook restraint.Chinese.

The mare’s kicks are caresses to the horse.Spanish, Portuguese.

The old horse may die waiting for new grass.

The old horse must die in somebody’s keeping.

The tired mare goes willingly to grass.Portuguese.

The wounded horse as soon as he sees the saddle, trembles.Modern Greek.

’Tis the abilities of the horse occasions his slavery.

Touch a galled horse and he’ll wince.Dutch.

Uphill spare me, downhill forbear me, plain way spare me not, nor let me drink when I am hot.

When old horses get warm they are not easily held in.German.

When the manger is empty the horses fight.Danish.

Where the Turk’s horse once treads, the grass never grows.

Who cannot beat the horse let him beat the saddle.Italian.

You may know the horse by his harness.

You must look at the horse and not at the mare.