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THANK you to Jenny, whose question serves as the inspiration for today’s column.

Jenny and her workmates were discussing the expression ‘ Shank’s pony’ and wondered about the origins – let’s get started.

The Imperial War Museum in London has a wonderful selection of posters from the Great War (World War I) and one of these features a small white pony with a normal neck, head, legs and tail, but whose body is a green boot.

The poster admonishes folk to: “Walk short distances and leave room for those who have longer journeys.”

The use of resources such as petrol to fuel cars and buses was being discouraged so that reserves could be employed in the war effort.

The poster was, of course an allusion to Shank’s pony and encouraged readers to walk.

So how did a poster of a pony come to suggest walking?

Let’s look at the actual expression – Shank’s pony.

Who was Shank?

Well, if we’re to believe one claimant to the origin of the phrase, we’d accept that it was borne of an association with Shanks and Company, which manufactured lawn mowing machines. The company was established in 1853 and later taken over as Armitage Shanks. The first large-scale mower they produced was the size of three apple cartons and, lacking a motor, was pulled by a small horse.

One man led the pony while a second followed guiding the wheeled mower.

So the pony in question would have been the one dragging the mowing machine and Shanks ‘owned’ the pony as a means of power – two men still had to walk the machine.

Problem solved? Of course not! The breadcrumb I’d left for you to follow the trail is the date. The company was not established until 1853 and the large machine built by Shanks and pulled by a pony, was not built until a couple of years later and the expression was about well before this time.

So, we’re back to the drawing board? Of course not.

The origin of the expression rests not with a who, but a what.

A ‘shank’ is the lower leg, the part with the shin bone (the part of the leg containing the tibia and a fibula if you want to be particular).

The word comes into Old English via the Old Norse word ‘skakkr’ and relates to the part of the leg underneath ‘the joint, which allowed it to bend in half’ – so, under the knee.

The phrase ‘Shank’s pony’ means to use your own legs as a means of transportation and is Scottish in origin.

The first written record of the phrase may be found in The TeaTable Miscellany: Or, a Complete Collection of Scots Sangs and was written by Scottish poet and playwright Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and published in 1729.

Using our usual rule of thumb, if it appeared in writing on a certain date, then it is likely to have been in common use for some time before that.

One of the ‘Scots sangs’ that appear in the book is titled ‘ Scornfu’ Nansy’ and includes the lines: “And ay until the Day he died, He rade on good shanks Nagy.”

This song is also included in compendium of Scottish songs and poems titled simply A Collection of Old Ballads and published, without author credit, in 1738.

The Scots used the term ‘nagy’ or ‘nag’ for a small pony.

By the time the 19th century rolled around the expression was well in use in Scotland and throughout England.

Then the expression began to evolve: Shanks mare; Shanks galloway (a small strong horse common to southwest Scotland); the horse with 10 toes; travelling in a shoe cart; Mr Walker’s bus; Mr Foot’s horse or even to travel by the Marrow Bone Stage.

While I confess, I’m quite taken with Mr Walker’s bus and the Marrow Bone Stage, none of these ever caught on and it is the expression ‘shanks’s pony’ that has stood the test of time and predates the mowing machine claimant.

By the way, both the French and Spanish have similar expressions.

The French equivalent is ‘allez sur la haquenée (or sur la mule) des cordeliers’. It meant literally, ‘to go on the Cordeliers hackney/mule’.

A hackney is a breed of horse bred specially for pulling a carriage – compact, strong and disciplined. The Cordeliers are Franciscan friars who lived simple lives and travelled by foot often travelling with a long staff as a walking stick.

The French called their stick ‘la haquenée’ (or ‘la mule’).

In Spain, it was well known that St Francis, patron saint of animals, would never have ridden a horse, so walking became known as using ‘el caballo de San Francisco’ (Saint Francis’s horse).

There you go Jenny – the expression rose up in Scotland probably during the 1600s and spread out to France and Spain and even to America and Australia.

Here, it’s an expression in decline with less than 40 per cent of the population using it and fewer still understanding its origins.

I’d like to think a few more understand it now.