Hold Your Horses

William: Hello and welcome to The
English We Speak. My name is William Kremer.
Li: And I’m Li. William, what’s our phrase today?
William: Well, hold on a second Li, let me just play you —
Li: No, come on, tell me now — what phrase are we looking at today?
William: Well,
we’ll come onto that in a minute
but I’ve got some very special FX for
you…
Li: More special FX?!
And special music? That’s not what our people want! They
want authentic English phrases, and they want them now! So what’s our
phrase today?
William: Li, hold your horses!
Li: Eh?
William: Hold your horses. It means: be patient.
Li: Oh… where does this phrase come from, William?
William: Well, apparently it comes from battles in times of war:
Example
FX — Battle re-enactment noise
Man: Hold your horses men!
FX — gunfire, horses whinnying
Li: Wow, Will, your FX this week are really special!
William: Hmmm, I know!
In that clip we heard a soldier telling his men to hold their
horses before he started firing weapons.
Li: But nowadays, I am guessing,
you don’t need to be a soldier to use this
phrase, right?
William: Exactly, yes. It means: don’t rush,
be patient. Let’s hear a couple of examples:
Examples
Man: I’ve just gone online to order
us some new computers. What’s our charge
code again?
Woman: Ah, well you’re going to have to
hold your horses! I haven’t agreed a budget
yet with the management team.
Man: I’ve just spoken to Mark —
Woman: Have you indeed?
Well don’t listen to a word that man says! He’s never liked
me…
Man: Hey, hey hey! Hold your horses.
We didn’t discuss you at all, as a matter of
fact.
Li: So in that first example,
the man couldn’t order his computers yet because the
company hadn’t agreed a budget.
He had to wait; he had to hold his horses.
William: Hmm.
And in the second example it was slightly different. In that clip we
heard a woman interrupt the man
because she thought she knew what he was
going to say.
Li: Ah yes,
the man told her to hold her horse and wait for him to finish
speaking.
William: Ah, yeah,
but Li we never say «Hold your horse» we always say «Hold your
horses».
Li: Oh OK, I’ll bear it in mind. But, er, Will???
William: Yeah?
Li: Can you hold this for me please?
Horse whinnying