Hello,
I’ve been asked to find the meaning of “bobtail” in the Christmas carol Jingle Bells. The prevailing guess is the horses pulling the sleigh have bobtails to which the jingle bells are fastened. The person who wants to know thinks the bells are fastened onto a bobtailed sleigh. I’ve searched the Web, electric library, Britannica Online, the American Memory section of the Library of Congress On-Line to no avail. Can anyone help?
Thanks in advance,
Harper Wood
My guess would be that the horse does have a bobbed tail, but that the bells are attached to its harness, not to the tail itself. I’ve seen harnesses with bells on them in parades.
You’re right, mostly. The “bob-tail” refers to the horse, not the sleigh. The bells were fastened to the harnesses, though, not the horses tail.
“Bells on bob-tails ring” does sound better than “bells on the harnesses of whacked tail horses ring”.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
Cher - Pbbbbbth!
Robert “Bob” Tail was the sleigh driver. 
“Bells on bob-tails ring” does sound better than “bells on the harnesses of whacked tail horses ring”.
Oh, I don’t know…I think it’s kind of catchy. And what other opportunity might we have to use the word “whacked” in a Christmas song?
“I saw mommy whacking Santa Clause”?
Actually, the verse is as follows:
“Bells on Bob’s tail ring”
Bob is the name of the horse, and there are bells on his tail.
-At least that was the way it was explained to me.
-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
I always thought the verse went:
“Bells on Bobtail ring”
and Bobtail was the name of the horse. Seems like I read that somewhere…
Try this link: www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/MIDI/SONGS/CHRISTMAS/jingle.html
This page from the Computer Sciences Department at Utrecht University in The Netherlands gives ALL the lyrics to “Jingle Bells,” written by John Pierpont in 1859.
From the first stanza: “Bells on bob-tail ring”
From the fourth stanza: “Just bet a bob-tail bay”
A “bay” is a reddish-brown horse. Unfortunately, the lyrics do not say where those bells were affixed.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
The explanation:
When our hero asked Miss Fanny Bright to meet him for a sleigh ride, she answered “I’ll be there with bells on!” Thus a popular expression and a Christmas carol were simultaneously born.
Quand les talons claquent, l’esprit se vide.
Maréchal Lyautey
Okay, my understanding, based on what I know of horses, but with no cites to back it up:
“Bob-tails” were and are horses that have had their tails gathered up and tied into a knot, often seen these days in dressage events. The purpose of knotting up the horse’s tail (sorta like a bun) is that it keeps the horse from whacking the sleigh or carriage driver in the face with the tail. (In dressage, it allows the judge a better view of the horse’s performance and leg-work.)
Bells, as in jingle bells, can be attached to the horse’s harness (occasionally bridle as well but not often as many horses don’t like belled bridles). The harness passes across the shoulders and/or whithers of the horse (depending on the harness). It doesn’t include the tail, which has an obvious lack of pulling power.
Given this, my understanding was always that “bob-tail” referred to the horse, generically, and the line was about how “bells on (a) bob-tail (meaning, sleigh or carriage horse) ring.” This seems to jibe with how much fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.
Here endeth the WAG.
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
As a child I always thought the words were “Bells are 'bout to ring.”
Made more sense to me then. Hell, makes more sense to me now!
In the nineteenth century, a common fashionable practice was to dock, or bob, the tails of carriage horses. Just like docking the tails of puppies, this involved actually cutting throught the bone and flesh, resulting in a permanently stubby tail. Dressage competitors today tie up their horses’ tails, but they do not surgically remove them as was done in the past.
In “Black Beauty”, a book that described every horrid crime against horses that was common in the victorian era, one of Black Beauty’s stablemates was a horse with a docked tail. He complained bitterly about his loss because he could never again swat flies off his flanks. (Another fashionable and cruel victorian custom described in that book was the check-rein, which held the horse’s head in an unnaturally high position.)
Most of our elaborate Christmas traditions (Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas shopping. Christmas carols) come from the victorian era when bobtailed horses were a common sight.
Zee song is written ‘bob-tail’ not ‘bobtail’
‘bob’ means to go up and down. Thus, the tail of zee horse was going up and down. No way was it ‘bobbed,’ of docked.
I bet my money on a bob-tail nag;
Somebody bet on the bay.
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- I also note that the bells that Pierpont heard were considerably more inspiring. The bells you can commonly buy today don’t sound like antique sleigh bells atall. Old ones are cast solid from bellmetal with the striking ball trapped inside, not stamped from thin sheet brass or (even cheaper and poorer sounding) steel. - MC
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- PS:If you’re making bells or windchimes, use brass - not steel, aluminum or iron. Brass. See your local hardware store.
Now the ground is white,
Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls along
And sing this sleighing song.
Just bet a bob-tailed bay,
Two-forty as his speed,
Hitch him to an open sleigh
and crack! You’ll take the lead.
Ok what the hell is a Two-forty speed?
I’ve never heard them called that… So, what exactly does a judge look for in a horse’s, um ‘performance’?
Stephen
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Well, it’s only a song. It doesn’t have to be scientifically accurate, does it? Not more than, say songs by IceT or whoever.
Anyway, little thingies attached to a horses tail and when it swings it makes a little ring ring sound, is kinda pretty thought.