How did horseplay come to mean playing roughly?
Watch some horses playing in a field sometime. I think they will kick and bite if they get a little overstimulated. Maybe it’s the young ones that do that, not sure.
I grew up with horses and mom always telling me not to horseplay in the house (“Take it outside!”). If you watch any horse who ate their wheaties this morning, you will find one with a gleam in it’s eye and a spring in it’s step. Horses, when they play, chase one another, kick (in fun), scream, whinnie, and neigh like they were little kids who had no parents to watch them. Oftentimes they will get hurt, but it’s not because the other horse was being a meanie. It may because they were playing rough. And believe me, you will know when a horse isn’t kidding around!
The horse play usually stops when there is danger, hot sun, or the herd leader says “that’s enough” (kind of like mom).
I tried to look up a word origin on horseplay but the best I could get was the definition.