A short horse is easily curried.

Posted by Masakim on April 26, 2002

In Reply to: posted by Jack on April 26, 2002

: Has anyone else ever heard this espression...?

: "A short horse is easily curried."

: I heard it often when growing up as a young boy, used mostly by my grandparents and great-grandparents, which would mean back in the early to mid 1900's. They lived on ranchland out in West Texas.

: The meaning is fairly obvious, as "curry" means to brush or groom [a horse], so doing a "short horse" would be easy, and so the phrase was often used in reference to something that turned out to be "easy to do". I am mainly wondering if this was every used in other areas, or is common enough that anyone else has every heard it? I've had no luck in finding it on any of the phrase/saying databases. Thanks...

This proverb is entered in A Dictionary of American Proverbs :
A short horse is soon curried. [Variants]: (a) A short horse is easy to curry. (b) Short horse, soon curried. [Recorded distribution]: U.S., Can.
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Short horse is son j-curryed. (_Douce Manuscript_, c1350)
A shorte hors is son curried. (R. Hills, _Commonplace-Book_, before 1500)
Here's a short horse soone curryed. (T. Heywood, _Royal King_, 1637)
A Short Horse is soon curried. (T. Fuller, _Gnomologia_, 1732)
A short tale is soon told -- and a short horse soon curried. (W. Scott, _The Abbot_, 1820)
A little horse is soon wispt, And a pretty girl is soon kist. (Bridge, _Cheshire Proverbs_, 1917)
A short horse is soon curried. This is our tightest squeeze yet .. but it's only a beginning. (L.I. Wilder, _By Shores of Silver Lake_, 1939)
That7s a short horse and soon curried. Let's go see this Captain Murphy and put an end to it. (F.P. Keyes, _Dinner at Antoine's_, 1948)