Hogging?

[Sportznight]

Does anyone know the origin of the term? Just talking with someone and this came up, along with the reasonings for hogging and the variations and I said that with cobs the whole hog (pardon the pun) comes off and have got to wondering if that saying had anything to do with the origins of the term WRT horses, seeing as hogs are pigs...

 

[MissSBird]

isnt it something to do with a "hog bush"?
a short, thick bush enclosure to keep piggies (hogs) in?

isn't it a "roach neck" in the USA?

Yes it's called roaching in the states, not sure what the origins are though!

 

[unbalanced]

According to the experts at the Oxford English Dictionary the etymology is obscure. The first recorded use of the word was in the 25 Sep 1769 edition of the Dublin Mercury, the sentence being 'A sorrel Horse‥his mane hogged last May'.

Roach is more recent - the first recorded use is from 1803 in Raleigh, North Carolina, also describing a sorrel (chestnut) horse: 'The Horse is a bright Sorrel, right hind Foot white,‥his Mane has been roached but is now grown pretty long'.
An earlier use of roach would be roach-backed (1776 in New England) which would describe an animal as having an arched back - presumably hogging/roaching the mane would highlight the arch in the neck/back and that is where this term comes from.

 

[Sportznight]

Golly, that's very interesting Unbalanced, thank you
Roaching I can understand, esp in relation to a horse's back, as a Roach's own back is so shaped. However, Hog = pig to most people, hence the query.

BB it might have been that too - interesting

 

[touchstone]

Looking online the term hogging was also used to describe a ship's keel that curved upwards, I suppose a horse's neck is the same shape so might have influenced the terminology?