Horseplay

What is horseplay?

Horseplay turns up on Dutch kink lists as a name for pony play: roleplay in which someone takes on the role of a horse or pony, complete with bit, tack and training. The English word horseplay means something quite different, namely loud roughhousing. So anyone heading into the international literature searches for pony play.

Where the word horseplay comes from

From English of around 1580, and even then without a trace of sex. Etymonline dates horse-play to the 1580s and derives it from horse, with its overtone of “strong, coarse”, plus play. The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary still keeps it there, labeled old-fashioned: “rough, noisy behaviour, especially when people push each other as a joke”. The example the dictionary gives is a school sign: “No running or horseplay in the halls.”

So the roleplay has a different name in English. The encyclopedia describes pony play as the form in which at least one participant dresses as an equine or takes on its behavior, and adds that it often includes the training an owner would give a horse: learning to walk and canter, adapted to human limbs. Wiktionary does cross-link horseplay and ponyplay in its see-also line, but gives horseplay itself no BDSM meaning at all.

Why people do horseplay

For the posture, not the costume. The pull of horse roleplay sits in the training: there’s something you can’t do yet, and after a few tries you can do it better. That makes it one of the few forms of roleplay with a visible learning curve.

For whoever plays the horse, the negotiating falls away. With a bit between your teeth you don’t talk anymore. You respond to the rein and to the pace. For whoever is the trainer, the payoff runs the other way: steering without words, and noticing that it lands. An honest limit alongside it: this is the gear-heaviest corner of animal play, and precisely because talking falls away, everything that needs agreeing has to be discussed before the bit goes in.

Where this fits on my site

Are you searching for horseplay because you saw it on a kink list? Then the play itself is on pony play, and animal play is the broader entry. Do you want to explore roles like these with someone who stays calm about it? Then the page on the BDSM date explains how such an arrangement is discussed beforehand.

Sources

• horseplay. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, Cambridge University Press. Supplies the English meaning “rough, noisy behaviour, especially when people push each other as a joke” and the old-fashioned label.
• horse-play. Etymology, Origin & Meaning. Online Etymology Dictionary. Supplies the 1580s dating and the derivation from horse in the sense “strong, coarse” plus play.
• Animal roleplay. Pony play. Wikipedia. Supplies the description of pony play as roleplay in which a participant dresses as or takes on the behavior of an equine, and the training an owner would give a horse, adapted to human limbs.
• horseplay. Wiktionary. Supplies the only registered meaning “rough or rowdy play” plus the see-also reference to ponyplay, which is listed there as a BDSM term.

Related terms

• Animal play. The umbrella horse roleplay falls under, with the research on its best-known form.
• Handler. The participant who stays human; with horses that role is usually called a trainer.
• Bit. The piece in the mouth that stops the talking and does the steering.
• Harness. The tack that carries the body and that a cart or rein attaches to.
• Collar. The other spot a lead or rein takes hold of.
• Petplay. The roleplay where someone is kept as a pet, which horseplay does not fall under.
• Roleplay. The umbrella the horse play sits under.
• Pony play. The play itself, under the name used for it internationally.