Hell <bent> for leather? Origin?

[City_Gent]

What’s the origin of “hell for leather”, or “hell bent for leather”, as it’s sometimes put? And what exactly does it mean, just “extremely ardent”, or is there more to it than that?

[evilhanz]

From the word-detective, http://www.word-detective.com/back-y.html

In any case, to answer your question, “hell bent for leather” does not seem to have a single origin – it is probably a blending of two other colloquial sayings, “hell bent” and “hell for leather,” into one phrase.

Of the two sayings, “hell bent,” meaning “recklessly determined,” is the more common today, and has been popular since the early 19th century, describing someone who is prepared to go “to the gates of hell” in pursuit of a goal. “Hell for leather,” on the other hand, means specifically “riding (a horse) very fast and recklessly,” and is rarely heard today. The first recorded use of “hell for leather,” by the way, was in a story written in 1889 by Rudyard Kipling, who probably either invented the phrase or picked it up from British Army troops in India. Just what the “leather” in the phrase means is uncertain – it may refer to a leather crop used to spur the horse, or it may refer to the wear and tear inflicted on the saddle by strenuous riding.

[TomH]

I’ve always assumed that hell for leather was part of one of those joke alphabets that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th Century: A for horses, B for mutton, etc; but I have no evidence to back this up.