scare the horses

English

Etymology

Probably a variation of frighten the horses of similar meaning, as in "Does it really matter what these affectionate people do? — so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses!"

Wikiquote

Verb

scare the horses (third-person singular simple present scares the horses, present participle scaring the horses, simple past and past participle scared the horses)

1. To upset public order, decorum, or conventional values.
   • 2005, Richard Roeper, Schlock Value‎^[1]:

     Invisible no-makeup makeup. Don't want to scare the horses. Okay, deep breath: the tube.

   • 2005, Jonathan Kirsch, God Against the Gods‎^[2], page 7:

     The core value of paganism was religious tolerance — a man or woman in ancient Rome was at liberty to offer to offer worship to whatever god or goddess seemed most likely to grant a prayerful request, with or without the assistance of priests and priestesses as long as he or she didn't do it in the streets, as a Victorian-era wit once said of women preachers, and scare the horses.

   • 2010, Michael A. Turner, A Peculiar Prophet: William H. Willimon and the Art of Preaching‎^[3]:

     Preaching in such an environment would seem to be easy, and Willimon could claim success by following the advice not to scare the horses.

   • 2012, Leo Booth, Spirituality and Recovery‎^[4], page 139:

     An English friend once said to me, “Meditation is decidedly foreign. not to be done in polite society. Rather like sex, it scares the horses!”
     In my opinion, the truth is the opposite: it does not scare the horses, and we should not be afraid of it.

   • 2013, Garry Bushell, Face Down‎^[5]:

     "It's no use being radical if you can't present your ideas sensibly.”
     “Don't scare the horses."