Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index. It's not particularly helpful this time, but it does give a number of songbook references. -Joe Offer-

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All the Pretty Little Horses

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, Go to sleep you little baby. When you wake, you shall have All the pretty little horses." The horses are described. Another verse describes a baby (lamb) left in a meadow at the mercy of the birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal horse
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Randolph 269, "Black Sheep Lullaby" (2 short texts, both rather far removed from the usual form; 1 tune)
BrownIII 115, "Hush-a-Bye, Don't You Cry" (3 text plus mention of 1 more); also
"Poor Little Lamb Cries Mammy" (3 short texts, perhaps related to the Randolph version)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp.145-148, "Lullaby," (no title), "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby," "Got to Sleep, Little Baby," (no title), (no title), "Ole Cow," (no title) (8 texts, most short, 2 tunes); also probably pp. 148-149, "Baa-Baa Black Sheep" (1 short text, one tune, which is much like this piece except for the first line)
Joyner, p. 100, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-1ed, p. 267, "Go to Sleepy"; Owens-1ed, p. 268, "Go to Sleep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-2ed, p. 179, "Go to Sleep Little Baby"; p. 181, "Go to Sleepy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sandburg, pp. 454-455, "Go To Sleepy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the child is promised rewards upon waking -- but seemingly also threatened with the "booger man" if it won't sleep)
SharpAp 233, "Mammy Loves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Trent-Johns, pp. 20-21, "Go To Sleepy, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 204-205, "Hushabye (All the Pretty Little Horses)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 2, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 304-305, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 265, "Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 217-218, "[Horsey Song]" (1 text, 1 tune, partly repeated on page 223)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 704, "You Shall Have a Horse to Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 224, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text); also probably p. 235, "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby" (very short fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 407, "All The Pretty Little Horses" (1 text)
DT, ALLHORSE
Roud #6705
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Whole Heap a Little Horses" (on LomaxCD1702)
Pete Seeger, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (on GrowOn2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: LxU002

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