stalking horse noun | also written stalking-horse

-  a person put forward as a candidate or spokesperson to conceal the true intentions of a more powerful figure behind them

-  one who tests public or political reaction on behalf of an anonymous third party

Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The phrase has its roots in one of the oldest tricks in the hunter's handbook. Before the age of telescopic sights and camouflage netting, wildfowl hunters in Britain discovered that birds that would scatter at the sight of a human figure would calmly hold their ground when a horse wandered nearby. Birds, it seems, have excellent threat-detection for bipeds and rather poor intelligence on quadrupeds. The solution was to train a horse to walk slowly across a field, then creep alongside it, using the animal's bulk as a moving screen until he was close enough to shoot. When no horse was available, a painted wooden or canvas cut-out in the shape of one did the job equally well.

By the 18th century the phrase had stepped well clear of the hunting field and into politics, where its core logic — send someone expendable ahead to absorb the risk, while the real player waits safely in the wings — proved irresistible.

The first documented political use in a British newspaper appears in The Observer in 1796. The phrase then crossed the Atlantic. By the 19th century it was standard vocabulary in American political commentary, and it has never gone out of fashion.

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SPOT THE STALKING HORSE

Once you know the concept, you start seeing stalking horses everywhere — which is either a sign of political sophistication or mild paranoia, depending on your disposition.

Here are some tell-tale signs: the candidate enters a contest they cannot plausibly win; they attack the incumbent with unusual vigour for someone with nothing to gain; their campaign stops suspiciously once a more credible challenger appears; and they subsequently receive a surprisingly comfortable appointment.

In business negotiations, the equivalent is the opening offer that seems serious but is designed purely to anchor the conversation before the real buyer steps in. The good news is that awareness is the best defence. When someone volunteers to "take one for the team," it is always worth asking: whose team, exactly?

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

agent provocateur, blind, cat's-paw, cover, decoy, diversion, dupe, facade, feint, front, front man/woman, instrument, lightning rod, mask, Patsy, plant, ploy, pretext, proxy, puppet, red herring, sacrificial lamb, screen, shield, STALKING HORSE, stool pigeon, stooge, straw man, surrogate

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

"Being aware of STALKING HORSE tactics is the best defence against countering them."

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THANKS to Gloria for suggesting today's OWAD.

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