shanks' mare
One's own feet used for walking; to "travel by shanks' mare" or "ride [on] shanks' mare" is to walk to your destination.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“My car is broken, so I am traveling by shanks' mare today.”
“Since the bus stopped running late at night, we decided to ride shanks' mare back to the hotel.”
“With the mountain roads impassable due to the heavy snow, the travelers were forced to rely on shanks' mare to reach the village.”
first recorded 18th c. disputed origin
The phrase is believed to be Scottish in origin, recorded as *shanks-naig* in 1774. It derives from the use of *shank* to denote the human leg between the knee and the ankle, suggesting that one’s own limbs serve as a functional, if uninspired, substitute for a horse.
A popular but likely erroneous theory associates the expression with a horse-drawn lawn mower manufactured by Shanks & Company Ltd., a firm founded in 1853. The narrative suggests the name refers to the human operator who was required to walk behind the machine to guide the animal. This explanation suffers from a chronological inconvenience, as references to the phrase in Scottish literature pre-date the existence of the company and its mechanical mower by several decades.
Last updated August 10, 2026