What will someone get if you send them for a horse ladder
What will some get if you send them for a horse ladder:
Confused and laughed at.
The dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue says a horse ladder is:
A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow.
In modern terms this is a fools errand. A snipe hunt, like sending someone for a left handed screwdriver.