What Does “A Drove of Horses” Mean?
Like “drove of cattle” and “drove of goats,” “drove of horses” comes from the traditional practice of droving, moving livestock on foot over land, often significant distances, to market or new grazing ground. Horse droving was a genuine part of English rural commerce for centuries, with unbroken young horses and ponies driven from breeding regions to markets and fairs, some of which, like the historic horse fairs of the British Isles, still continue in some form today.
A drove implies deliberate human direction, horses being actively moved as a group toward a specific destination, distinct from horses simply grazing together at their own pace. The practice required real skill, since horses can be more flighty and harder to keep together on the move than cattle or sheep, making an experienced drover’s ability to manage a drove without losing animals a genuinely valued skill.
Example: “A drove of horses was brought down from the hill country for the autumn fair, just as it had been for generations.”
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