比喻粗略地观察事物。同走马观花。
〈fig.〉look at flowers while riding a horse; gain a shallow understanding from a fleeting glance
出处:唐 孟郊【登科后】春风得意马蹄疾，一日看尽长安花

It's a chinese idiom... It means "gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation"

hi eric,
you can imagine how fast a horse running, so 'To watch flowers while riding on horseback' could only get a general view , hurriedly . at the first it just to express someone's exultation, but afterward , people say 走马观花 means "gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation" (baralulu's answer is very clear)

The answers are as following:
1)Strictly speaking, it's a Chinese idiom not a proverb..
2)I prefer “having given a cursory look and gained shallow understanding” to "gaining a superficial understanding through cursory observation”.
The reasons are as following:
3)Here, 观 equals 看，just like坐井观天.
4)“观察”:仔细察看客观事物或现象，如“观察地形”、“观察问题”。（Look round objective things or phenomenon, like “observation terrain”, “observation question”.）
More Points are as following:
5)原意：春风得意的样子 Its original intention is elated with success appearance.
常用来形容不深入细致地观察事物，只是粗略地观察，比喻被表面现象所迷惑。
Usually used to describe non-depth and non-meticulous observation of things, only a rough observed, the analogy is confused by the superficial phenomenon.
6) 近义词(near idioms): 浮光掠影; 反义词(contrary idioms) : 下马看花
The sources are as following:
7） 唐代著名诗人孟郊，40岁以前一直过着隐居生活。后来在母亲的勉励下，他赴京城赶考。但两次都没考中，第三次才终于榜上有名。高兴之余，他提笔写下了《登科后》一诗，用以表达自己喜悦的心情，诗的后两句是“春风得意马蹄疾，一日看尽长安花。后人就此概括出了“走马观花”这个成语。
8）另有民间传说，录此供分享：有一个媒人，给一个瘸腿男子和一个兔唇姑娘说媒（相亲），让男孩骑马，女孩手持一朵花假装在嗅。直到两人成婚才发现上当。

走马观花

Dear Eric:
i think it's a Chinses proverb."To watch flowers while riding on horseback" in chinese is 走马观花or走马看花。(zou ma guan hua or zou ma kan hua)
it has several meannings:
1.to glance over things hurriedly
2.gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation.
3.skim the surface.
i hope my answer can help you.
She gave U a perfect answer expect the 3th explaination. It should be just concern about the surface.

"To watch flowers while riding on horseback", in vietnamese there is one idiom which has the same meaning [cuz vietnamese is very similar to chinese] : "Cưỡi ngựa xem hoa". Its meaning is "not to go in details", it also indicates the fishtail-palm attitude.