Songs about Horses

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Susan of DT
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:53 AM

Tickle Cove Pond

Red-Headed Stranger

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:50 AM

Here's one of the best My Lovely Horse

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:42 AM

Thanks tom. Learned Stewball long ago when I first picked up the guitar. Mr. Paxton's song is also a great one.

Cats, that is a wonderful story and thank you for the lyrics. Very well written indeed. Does Jon have this song on c/d?
Adrien

Subject: Lyr Add: HORSE DAYS (Jon Heslop)
From: Cats
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:25 AM

Beer, lyrics below. What is even better is that it is a true story. I heard it on Radio Cornwall when the son of the past coxswain of the Lizard lifeboat was on. As soon as I got to a phone I called them and they played the interview done the phone for me. When I arrived home I told Jon and within days he had written the song.

HORSE DAYS


My father used to tell me of his father's father's days
When men would come from Cadgwith up the steep and rocky way.
How that peril on the sea would send a fire into the sky
And they would stand behind the gate to watch the men run by.

Now no fire disturbs our ease, there's no longer need to run.
Willing men defy the seas but the horses' day is done.

When the signal called the farmer then the cart was brought in haste,
The boy would fetch the horses, not a minute would they waste.
The crew could catch their breath and ride, thankful for a faster speed
For every second saved on land could save a soul in need.

In time we learned the meaning of the fire in the sky
We knew we would be needed when we saw that star on high.
Over field and over meadow, 'twixt the hedges, down the lanes
We would run to be the first one to the bridle and the reins.

We each knew our duty, each to their appointed task.
Like the men who knew the danger we would never have to ask.
There was pride and there was honour in the job we had to do,
No reward except the knowing that the lifeboat had come through.

Came the day we were not needed 'neath the dark and stormy sky,
Horse and cart were superseded, we just watched the men drive by.
Now the fire is extinguished and the men go past unseen
But our story is remembered, like the fields forever green.

© Jon Heslop, March 2006

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: topical tom
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:24 AM

Another nice song is
My Pony Knows The Way by Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: topical tom
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:13 AM

Several versions of the song "Stewball" can be found here

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 08:56 AM

eric, thanks. That's another one I forgot about.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: GUEST,Marymac90
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 08:55 AM

Thanks McGee, for providing the name "Chestnut Mare"
and the name of the proper artists, The Byrds.

Marymac

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 08:52 AM

Thank you all. There are some great horse songs appearing. Insane Beard thanks for that link. Very interesting. Keith A., Homeward (Home lads Home)is a great tune. Never heard it before. Cats. Been looking but can't seem to find the lyrics but what you have written makes for a great story. Black Belt. Powerful sad song. Thank you so much. Good one quokka. A new one to me as well.
Thank you all once more.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 08:50 AM

Molly and Tenbrooks? from Big Mon

eric

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: quokka
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 08:19 AM

There is a song about a horse - 'my shiny black Bess', otherwise known as:

the Woody Guthrie song 'The Unwelcome Guest', music by Billy Bragg. It's in the DT, search for "unwelcome Guest' and threads will appear.
Cheers,
Quokka

Subject: Lyr Add: GRAY AND BLACK HORSES
From: Azizi
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 07:20 AM

GRAY AND BLACK HORSES

I went to down to the woods an' I couldn' go 'cross
So I paid five follars fer an ole gray hoss.
De horse wouldn' pull, so I sol' im fer a bull.
De bull wouldn' holler, so I sol' im fer a dollar.
De dollar wouldn' pass, so I throwed it in de grass.
Den de grass wouldn' grow. Heigho! Heigho!

Through dat huckleberry woods I couldn' git far,
So I paid a good dollar fre an old black mar.'
W'en I got down dar, de trees wouldn' bar;
So I had to gallop back on dat ole black mar'.
"Bookitie-bar'! Dat ole black mar'; "Bookitie-bar!' Dat ole black mar'.
Yes she trabble so hard dar she kolt off my h'ar.

from Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes-Wise And Otherwise {Port Wshington, N.Y, Kennikat Press Edition, 1968; 45; originally published in 1922}

-snip-

The beginning two lines are a floating verse that's usually given as "I went to the river and I couldn't get across/so I paid five dollars for an old gray horse."

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HIGH METTLED RACER (Graham Pratt)
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 07:15 AM

Graham Pratt put the poem "The High Mettled Racer" (origin unknown to me) to a tune of his own I believe.

THE HIGH METTLED RACER.

See the course throng with gazers, the sports are begun.
Amid the confusion the betting is done.
Ten thousand strange rumours resound far and near,
As Lords, hawkers and jockeys assail that idea.
While with neck like a rainbow, erecting his crest,
Pampered and prancing, his head on his breast,
Scarce sniffing the air, he's so proud and elate,
The high mettled racer first starts for the plate.

Now Reynard's put up and o'er hedge and bush rushed,
Hounds, horses and huntsmen all hard at his brush.
Through marsh, fen and briar, led by their snide prey,
By scent and by view chase their long tedious way.
While alike bred for sports of the field and the course,
So sure to come through, such a staunch and fleet horse,
When fairly run down the fox yields up his breath.
The high mettled racer is in at the death.

Grown aged, used up, and turned out of the stud,
Lame, spavined and wind gone, yet still with some blood,
While knowing postilions his pedigree trace,
With "His dam won that sweep." and "His sire won that race."
And what matches he won too, the ostlers count o'er,
Loitering their time at some alehouse door.
Whole the harness sores gall and the spurs his side goad,
The high mettled racer is a hack on the road.

'Til at last having laboured, dragged early and late,
Bowed down by degrees, he bends unto his fate.
Blind, old, weak, and feeble he trots round a mill
Or draws sand, 'til the sand in his hourglass stands still.
Now at last cold and lifeless, exposed to the view,
In the very same cart that he yesterday drew,
While a pitying crowd his sad relic surrounds,
The high mettled racer is sold for the hounds.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Cats
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 07:00 AM

Jon Heslop has written a beautiful song called Horse Days about the horses that would race to be the first in the harness when the lifeboat maroon went up. The men had to run over the headland from Cadgwith and when they got to the farm the farmer had the horses ready in the cart to take them down to the lifeboat shed. When the internal combustion engine arrived in Cornwall, they were no longer needed but every time the maroon went up the horses would still run to the yard and stand ready. The song is written from the horses point of view and, even though I am biased when it comes to his songwriting, this is a stunner!

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES
From: Azizi
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 06:59 AM

ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES
(Hush-a-bye)

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you'll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

Black and bay, dapple and grey,
Coach and six little horses,
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby,
When you wake, you'll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

Way down yonder, down in the meadow,
There's a poor wee little lamby.
The bees and the butterflies pickin' at its eyes,
The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you'll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.

"American Folk Traditional: According to Living Documents in American History from Earliest Colonial Times to the Civil War, edited by John A Scott, (Trident Press 1963), the song was collected by Alan Lomax, who learned it from his mother, who took it from North Carolina to Texas after the Civil War".

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/prettyhorses.htm


A sound clip of this song is included on this page.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: GUEST,keith again
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 06:50 AM

Discussion of above song here.

Subject: Lyr Add: POOR OLD HORSE
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 06:48 AM

Poor Old Horse - though not the shanty, which isn't about horses as such. As such it exists in various traditional versions - see Here.

A fine version was collected by Jim Eldon at the Appleby Horse Fair, here it is with extra verses from Grieg & Duncan

Poor Old Horse (The Old Grye Song).

Once he was a young horse, he was a young horse in his prime;
and his master used to ride him, and he thought he was very fine.

Chorus:
But he's still my own, bonny sweet, who rode so many the mile;
over hedges, ditches, brooks and bridges, gates and cleared many the stile.
Poor old horse, poor old horse, oh cherry old grey.

And his legs and his irons have all goe to decay;
likewise he poor old body, it's all withered away.

Once he wore the clothing of the lindsay oh so fine;
and his eyes they sparkle, and his mane it did shine.

Out from the warm stable to the fields he has to go;
let it rain, hail, or sun shines, or the winds blow high and low.

Oh, he's stealing all my hay, spoiling all my corn,
He's eating up the long grass that grows against the wall.

They'll beat him, whip him, cut him,
Til the huntsmen let him go.
Poor old horse, poor old horse, oh cherry old grey.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: GUEST,keith A o' Hertford
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 06:46 AM

Homeward (Home lads, home.)

Subject: Lyr Add: WILDFIRE (Michael Martin Murphey)
From: GUEST,McGee
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 04:01 AM

WILDFIRE by Michael Murphy

She comes down from Yellow Mountain
On a dark, flat land she rides
On a pony she named Wildfire
With a whirlwind by her side
On a cold Nebraska night

Oh, they say she died one winter
When there came a killing frost
And the pony she named Wildfire
Busted down its stall
In a blizzard he was lost

Chorus
She ran calling Wildfire
She ran calling Wildfire
She ran calling Wildfire

By the dark of the moon I planted
But there came an early snow
There's been a hoot-owl howling by my window now
For six nights in a row
She's coming for me I know
And on Wildfire we're both gonna go

We'll be riding Wildfire
We'll be riding Wildfire
We'll be riding Wildfire

On Wildfire we're gonna ride
Gonna leave sodbustin' behind
Get these hard times right on out of our minds
Riding Wildfire

Subject: Lyr Add: CHESTNUT MARE (The Byrds)
From: GUEST,McGee
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 03:55 AM

Chestnut Mare by The Byrds

Always alone never with a herd
Prettiest mare I've ever seen
You'll have to take my word

I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can
And when I do I'll give her my brand

Well I was up on stony ridge after this chestnut mare
I'd been chasin' her for weeks
Oh, I'd catch a glimpse of her every once in a while
Takin' her meal, or bathin
A fine lady

This one day I happened to be real close to her
I saw her standin' over there
So I snuck up to her nice and easy
And I got my rope out
And I flung it in the air

I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can
And when I do I'll give her my brand
And we'll be friends for life
She'll be just like a wife
I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can

Well I got her, and I'm pullin' on her, she's pullin' back
Like a mule goin' up a ladder
I take this chance and I jump up on her
Damned if I don't land right on top of her
Well she takes off, runnin' up on to that ridge
Higher than I've ever been before
She's runnin' along just fine, till she stops
Something spooked her
It's a sidewinder, all coiled and ready to strike
She doesn't know what to do for a second
But then she jumps off the edge
Me holding on

Above the clouds
Higher than eagles were gliding
Suspended in the sky

Over the moon
Straight for the sun we were riding
My eyes were filled with light

Behind us black walls
Below us a bottomless canyon
Floating with no sound

Gulls far below
Seemed to be suddenly rising
Exploding all around

I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can
And when I do I'll give her my brand
And we'll be friends for life
She'll be just like a wife
I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can

And we were falling down this crevice, about a mile down
I'd say! I look down and I see this red thing below us
It's our reflection in a little pool of water
About six feet wide, and one foot deep
And we're comin' up real fast
Crawling down right through it
We hit and we splashed it dry
That's when I lost my hold and she got away
But I'm gonna' try to get her again some day

I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can
And when I do I'll give her my brand
And we'll be friends for life
She'll be just like a wife
I'm gonna' catch that horse
I'm gonna' catch that horse
I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can
I'm gonna' catch that horse if I can

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 03:24 AM

Creeping Jane.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 02:59 AM

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman's 'A Horse Named Bill'

eric

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: GUEST,Marymac90
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 01:20 AM

"Tennessee Stud" is one that's been frequently recorded.

What's that Neil Young song with the talking part in the
middle? One where he sings about catching and taming a wild
mare, and how she'll be "just like a wife"! [Chestnut Mare]

Garnet's late brother Stan did one with a horse in the title.
It wasn't about the horse, but it was such a great story-
song, I hafta mention it here--"Harris and the Mare".

I'll probably think of more later...

Happy Trails...

Marymac

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: GUEST,Joy Bringer
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 11:50 PM

I think when anyone thinks of music associated with horses the theme from the early seventies television show "Black Beauty" comes to mind.

Can't think of any songs associated with horses. In commercial music I always liked the one by America "A horse with no name".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 11:40 PM

Lots of songs with horses in them, but none particularly about horses.

I remember one about the life of a ploughboy that talked of currying horses, but I suspect that was grooming rather than a recipe.

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 10:25 PM

Arkie, I had forgotten about that one. Mary Robbins was a great story teller and Old Red was one of them.

Effsee,
I should have known there would be one out there by Eric. Don't know how the melody goes but the lyrics in reading then are very moving.
Thank you both.
Adrien

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD RED (Marty Robbins)
From: Arkie
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 10:16 PM

The x-rated version of Strawberry Roan is popular among some groups.

Two other songs about horses is Patonia and Old Red. I think Patonia is traditional. Old Red was written by Marty Robbins.

Old Red

Old Red was one of the orneriest yet
I've seen at the big rodeo
He'd bite you and kick you and stomp out your life
Old Red had never been rode

Meaner than sin, wild as the wind
That blew on the Montana plain
Old Red was one of the last of his breed
And wasn't about to be tamed

From Idaho a young cowboy came
To ride in the big rodeo
The young cowboy's name was Billy McClain
And Billy had never been thrown

The greatest desire filling young Billy's heart
To ride this old outlaw called Red
He drew him one day and I heard Billy say
"I'll ride him or drop over dead"

Old Red was wicked down there in the chute
He was kicking and stomping about
Billy climbed in to the saddle with ease
Then yelled "Turn him loose, let us out"

Old Red came out with his head on the ground
His back hooves were touching his nose
Tryin' to get rid of the man on his back
But the man went wherever he'd go

Billy was rakin' Old Red with his spurs
From his tail to the tip of his chin
He was doin' right well, but Billy could tell
This outlaw would never give in

Old Red was runnin' straight for the fence
Suddenly stoppin' and then
He reared on his hind legs and fell on his back
Takin' poor Billy with him

There was a hush in the crowd and they knew
This would be Billy's last ride
The saddle horn crushed Billy's chest when they fell
And under Old Red Billy died

Old Red lay still, no more would he move
The cowboys that seen it could tell
In tryin' to throw Billy off of his back
Old Red broke his neck when he fell

Out in the West is the place where they rest
This cowboy that never was thrown
And one foot away restin' there 'neath the clay
Is the outlaw that never was rode

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Effsee
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 10:05 PM

How about Eric Bogle's song, "As If He Knows".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 09:54 PM

Thank you frogprince for those two. I know Strawberry Roam but the other stumped me.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: frogprince
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 09:04 PM

I think the first song I fell in love with as a little kid was Gene Autry singing "Strawberry Roan"; he used to do it on radio, but I've never been able to find it recorded except for one verse on a three record set of Gene. Much further along, I discovered "The Zebra Dun", on Cisco Houston's last recording. Eventually those two horses got together HERE.

Subject: Folklore: Songs about Horses
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jul 08 - 08:48 PM

A friend recently connected me with a beautiful song called: The Last Trip Home by The Battlefield Band. This got me to thinking that I also know a few others that can bring a lump to your throat such as Garnet Rogers "Small Victory" and Brendan Nolan's "Old Ned". Any other you can think of? Stewball was a good one as well.
Beer (adrien)