Hobby-horse
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- For other uses, see Hobby horse.
A hobby-horse is a child's toy horse popular during the days before cars. Just as children today will imitate the grown-ups driving cars so, in former times, the children played at riding up and down on a wooden hobby-horse. A larger hobby-horse is also a feature of Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in the British Isles.
By extension, the term also means an obsession of which a person won't let go. For instance, if a person keeps on and on about income taxes being too high someone might say "oh, he's on his hobby-horse again..."