Penbrons - a new character for the May Parade

 

I decided to make a Hobby Horse - specifically a mast horse like the Mari Lwyd of Wales and the two 'osses' - - Penglaz and Pen Hood - that parade around Penzance during the summer festival of Golowan and the midwinter celebration known as Montol.

The term ‘Hobby Horse’ comes from the common name for a small or middle-sized horse or pony. The antiquarian Bishop White Kennett recorded in his Parochial Antiquities (1695), that, ‘Our ploughmen to some one of their cart-horses generally give the name of Hobin’. The names Hobin or Hobby are variants of Robin (just as Hob was). Another, more familiar, variant of this is the name Dobbin. 

There are three general types of traditional Hobby Horse. The first is the Tourney Horse, which looks like a person riding a small horse. An oval frame is suspended around the waist with a skirt or caparison draped over it. These horses often have a carved wooden head with snapping jaws. The Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss is a very stylised form of Tourney. 

The second type is a Sieve Horse, which is a simpler version of the Tourney and only really known from Lincolnshire. They are made from a farm sieve frame, with head and tail attached, suspended from the performer's shoulders. 

The third type is the Mast Horse which has a head on a pole. This can be a carved head or, as in the case of the Welsh Mari Lwyd and the Penzance ‘Osses, a real horse skull. The jaw is usually hinged and the person carrying the mast wears a costume to disguise them.

My figure is a Mast Horse.

So, that's it for 2023 ... but more figures will be joining the May Parade in 2024.

Merry Christmas and a joyful Yule to you all.