A Stalking Horse is a name given to a person who is put forward to mask another's ambitions and so mislead an opponent. Stalking horses rarely benefit from their own actions and instead agree to act so that support for a challenge to an incumbent leader can be gauged. The phrase comes from an old English hunting practice, dating back as for as 1519, in which a huntsman would walk behind a specially trained horse and reach his prey without alarming it, as he would have done if he went towards it unhidden. Once within range the hunter could bag the unsuspecting game.