Greetings to the members of this board! I'm brand new here and have been reading here for about a year.
Although I've been around horses all my life, no one has been able to answer my question about why we say that someone has eaten enough to choke a horse. Horses don't choke that I'm aware of. And they eat a great deal--many nonstop, if you'd let them.
Is this expression simply an exaggeration--or is there truth behind it?
Looking forward to hearing your insights.
Trippingly,
Orion's Belt
I remembere as a child being told not to give a horse a whole apple, because the horse might choke on it, but I do not know if there is a real danger to the horse. This is one for Jackie.
Dear wwh,
You place the apple on your palm, and the pony just munches it as he will--sometimes dropping the fruit that didn't make it into its mouth into the sandy dirt. Doesn't matter to the pony! I'd be more worried about that pony biting my fingers accidentally than choking on that apple. I rode for years and years, and now hang around horses at my Uncle Jimmy's barn and never saw one choke on an apple.
Horses do choke--when they're ill.
But enough to choke a horse? I still don't get it here. Is there a problem somewhere in the world with horses choking on their food? And what kind of food would this be?
I hope Jackie does check in here. I've learned a lot from what's she's written about horses already. I wonder how many falls she's taken? When you've taken far too many to remember, then you're a rider.
Trotting back to starland,
OrB.
Hi Orion'sBelt~
This is only a WAG, but I always understood the phrase to mean to express an unbelievably large amount. If, as you say, horses never choke and they routinely consume large amounts of food, imagine the volume of food it would take to make one choke. It is that great amount which is expressed in "enough to choke a horse."
When I have the opportunity, I will check my library for additional info on the phrase.
BTW - my neighbor has horses of various types. The miniatures are smaller than my dog.
Welcome to the board, OrB. Nice name.
What was the name of Orion's horse? Did he have one? Have you seen the incredible full moon tonight, Starman? I think Sparteye proly is on the right track. Her WAG's are usually pretty good.
Glad you finally made us aware of your neat-sounding self, OrionsBelt. You really ought to get to know Wordwind--sounds to me like you're two of a kind. (That is a compliment.)
Well (man, you-all are making me blush right and left, today!)--it is just possible that I am the horse "expert" of all the board members. I'm not recalling anybody saying they're familiar with them. BUT--even if I happen to know more, I am not an expert! I'm sure Sparteye and you have it right--it's an exaggerated image. Though for some unknown reason, I get an image of a horse eating so much that the food piles up and up, until it chokes the horse from the INside. Weird, I know.
Just adding my concurrence to Sparteye's WAG. I was going to say approx. the same thing but she beat me to it.
OrB, big welcome. Good to have another deep southerner and especially one from Charleston, which is one of my favorite places.
No sooner I finished a post here than it occurred to me that there is an expression which seems to be related: "enough to make a cow laugh". Everyone knows that cows do not laugh and the idea of an animal laughing which usually appears to be exceedingly grave, or maybe bored, gives the idea that it would take an unbelievable degree of funniness. Same principle, I think in choking a horse.
I'm sure there are lots of other expressions of this kind. Who will start listing them? I'll start with: {Disgusting] enough to gag a maggot.
Welcome aBoard Orionsbelt~!!
> lots of other expressions of this kind..
How about:
Hungry enough to eat the crutch out of a low flying seagull/dead dingo (or worse!!)...
Hungry enough to eat a horse and chase the jockey...
As dry (thirsty) as a dead dingo's donger...
As full as a goog... (a "goog" being an egg)
As full as a tick...
etceterah
notback yet stales
Dear Notback, but still Stales,
What, pray tell, is a dead dingo's donger?
Milum
PS: This old saying from northeastern Alabama has nice alliteration as well as intellectual content. They say...
Why that's as rare as ticks on a turtle.
So hungry I could eat a baby's bottom through a cane chair.
(and similar sounding but now referring to size of teeth...)
He could eat an orange through a tennis racket.
'round this way we say "enough to choke a donkey"
also there is -- cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
He has'nt got a dogs chance (this usually applies to horses i have backed)
The dogs bollocks ( something really good)
the bees knees ( see above)
and there is a scottish one i read once ------ he's taken the crow road ( he died )
Hung like a horse!!!!!!!!!
the Duncster
Oh I forgot,
when you are really pleased you could be described as "like a dog with two dicks"
the Duncster
Oh I forgot,[...]mmm, please (forget it next time)
This thread is enough to make the angels cry.
This thread is enough to make the angels cry"Snort", she said with a horse laugh!
ROFLMAO at contributions so far. I have to add:
Cold as a stepmother's kiss
or alternatively
Cold as a landlord's heart.
Dead dingo's donger = deceased (male) Australian wild dog's reproductive organ
LOVED the good 'ol boy saying re ticks - it's now part of the stales vocab!!
I may have mentioned in a previous post the collection of good 'ol boy sayings I compiled in 1984 whilst working with an old, grizzled geologist from Tucson. Had never heard anything like them in Straya so wrote them all down and have tried to use them as often as possible since. Apologies for not diluting the following, but they'd lose something if I did:
Well, aint that just slicker'n catshit on linoleum
Well, aint that just slicker'n snot on a brass door handle
(A lot of something..) "asshole deep to an eight foot indian"
(not much of something) "not enough to fill a bee's nostril"
and a few others I forget that I don't have the time to post at the moment...
notbackyetstales
To add to NicholasW's post re being buck toothed...
"...could eat an apple through a picket fence..."
wishingiwasbackstales