Colt pixie

{{Short description|Creature from English folklore}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}

A colt pixie (also colepixie, colepixy, collepixie, collpixie, colt-pixie, colt pixy, and cold pixie) is a creature from English folklore in Southern England and South West England (especially the New Forest and Dorset). According to local mythology, it is a type of Pixie which takes the form of a scruffy, pale horse or pony to lead travellers and other livestock astray (similar to a Will-o'-the-wisp), and is often associated with Puck.{{cite web|website=Shadowdrake.com |url=http://www.shadowdrake.com/waterhorse.html |title=House Shadow Drake - Water Horses and Other Fairy Steeds |accessdate=18 November 2011 |archivedate=27 September 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927144745/http://www.shadowdrake.com/waterhorse.html |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}{{cite web|url=http://www.pandius.com/coltpixy.html|title=Colypixy|website=Pandius.com|accessdate= 18 November 2011}}{{not in source|date=March 2025}} Erasmus's 16th century translation Apophthegmatum opus includes the line: "I shall be ready at thine elbow to plaie the parte of Hobgoblin or Collepixie."{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |last2=Udall |first2=Nicholas |title=The apophthegmes of Erasmus |date=1877 |publisher=Boston, Lincolnshire : R.Roberts |url=https://archive.org/details/apopthegmesofera00erasuoft/page/124/mode/2up}}

The phrase "as ragged as a colt pixie" was common in the New Forest at least as recently as the early 20th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SNARAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA703|page=703|title=The English dialect dictionary|first=J.|last= Wright|year=1898|publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=9785878652940 }}Wise, John. The New Forest: Its History and its Scenery (1863){{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u4BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA124|title=Lettice Lisle, by the author of 'Stone Edge'.|publisher=|first=Lady Frances Parthenope |last=Verney|year=1870|page=124}} In the dialect of Dorset "to colt-pixy" meant to beat down the remaining apples after a crop has been harvested, i.e. to take the colts' horde{{clarify|date=March 2025}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXdCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA223|title=Complete Poems of William Barnes|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=223|isbn=978-0-19-956752-2 |last1=Barnes |first1=William |date=17 August 2023 }}