You'll be interested to know that the tune at least has passed into tradition in the UK as Napoleon's retreat. I'm sure that most people here don't realise it's a comic song about a horse.

I got it from someone who learnt it in Chipping Campden (Gloucestershire), and our band, the Green Willow Band, recorded it in 1980 as a hornpipe - just the tune. Such is the stuff of folk.

Cheers

Gwilym (Tradsinger)