Does anyone know the story of Toddle Boney's Horse? I was about to use the expression, which I've known since childhood, in a personal letter the other day and realised that I didn't even know how to spell the name, nor where the saying came from. I thought at first that it might have been a Scottish expression but could find no reference to it anywhere. Then I imagined that perhaps Toddle Boney was a Cambuslang man and the story more local.

Anyway, the tale (or 'the fact') is, for those who don't know it, that Toddle Boney worked and starved his horse until it dropped dead in the street. So, when someone said that 'you'll be like Toddle Boney's Horse', this meant simply that you're working so hard it would kill you -- that you'd die with your boots on.

Your location London area

Toadle Boney, there is a story and it's bout a man who starved his horse, I must have be brought up with a granny and parents with a warped sence of humour because it was used as a term of endearment as I still do
ach well every day's a school day and you learn something new every day

Your location cambuslang

I'm confused here. My Mum used to say 'Ye Toddle Bonnie' (note spelling) when I went out smartly dressed. Also most neighbours in 40's and 50's Westburn used that expression in a similar vein!
Born in the Area in 1935 and never heard the one about the horse. Ye live and learn.

Your location Leeds. Ex Westburn

There used to bea lady who stayed in Burn Terrace in the early 1950's and she was called Toddle Bonny because as a youngster her mother would say to her "Come on and toddle Bonny for your Mum". This stuck with this lady all her life and no-one could remember her real name. She was always known as Toddle Bonny!!!

Your location Newburgh, Fife