Mock Hobby-Horse

Mock Hobby-Horse is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The Dancing Master, 10th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

Playford writes:
First man turn the 2. wo. then the 2. man turn the 1. wo. men lead between the women, and cast into their own places; take double hands, and turn till the 1. man be in the second's place; the we. doing so, and change places at the same time, then the we. lead through the men as before, and turn their own.
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

A11-41st corners two hand turn
A21-42nd corners two hand turn
B11-4Men lead across, through women and cast back around partner finishing where they started
5-8Neighbors two hand turn once and a half
B21-4Women lead across, through men and cast back around partner
5-8Partners two hand turn

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=MockHobbyHorse

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.