Horse Introduction

"Look what these Morris Men have brought forth with their dancing"

The Horse's usual introduction goes

“This horrific creature is a traditional
Kentish Hooden Horse, it erupted as
an egg on the sands of Broadstairs
and has followed us around ever since.
It lives of a diet of coins of the realm
and young virgins - and he’s very hungry”

at which point the Horse dashes of into
the crowd and the dancing continues.

The introduction is suitably surreal
but sums up quite neatly the relationship
between the dance side and the Horse.
We don’t own the Horse, he is not our
mascot but is a character in his own
right with his own traditions. He is
only with us because he chooses to be.
The character of the Horse may change
with the different operators but the
relationship with the side remains the same.

The Hartley Horse has been part of the Hartley Morris Men’s performance for the past

30 years. The first Hartley Horse was made in the early 1970s’, based on the description

in the book on the Hoodening traditions written by Percy Maylem in 1909.

The Horse takes part in our performance as an individual Character and collector, it also infills

between dances. Occasionally the Horse will double as a fool chastising dancers by biting their

bottoms if they go wrong. John Tatman has been known to dance Adderbury, Shepherd’s

Hey in the horse, usually when there are a lot of children in the audience and he has had sufficient

to drink not to remember the last time he tried it.

Although based on the traditional Hooden Horse the Hartley Horse has some differences

from the horse as used in the Hoodening plays. If you want to know more about Hooden

Horses see Ben Jones's web site, I have put a link on the links page.

The main difference is that it is upright, the stick is short and not used as a third leg, the

body is hessian rather than a horse blanket to allow for the difference in shape and movement.

The operator is usually a dancer with bells on and works the crowd independently or with

the fool rather than as a character in the action. The jaw is long to allow the Horse to ‘eat’

money. This rather changes the look of the head and it has been mistaken for a crocodile,

until properly introduced.

The Hartley Horse being from the Hoodening traditions not the Morris dance traditions is

different in character from the Hobby Horses which has a rider to interact with the audience

[see the article on following pages on the Hobby Horse]. To explain the character of

Hooden Horse it has been said that the Hoodeners simply used the horse to frighten people

and then asked for money, a bit like Penny-for-the-Guy or Halloween today.

We have been known to perform a Horse play, usually called ‘shooting the horse’.

Terry Heaslip says more about this on his page. This is a Death / Resurrection play

and is now traditional in that it has grown and evolved by word of mouth and is never

exactly the same. I understand that the play has been ‘collected’ and reinterpreted by

other sides, which is how things remain alive and relevant.

Welcome to the Hartley Horse Web Site

"Look what these Morris Men have brought forth with their dancing"