All the Pretty Little Horses facts for kids

"All the Pretty Little Horses" (also known as "Hush-a-bye") is a very old and well-loved lullaby from the United States. A lullaby is a soft, gentle song sung to help a baby fall asleep. This song has been recorded by many artists and has even inspired the title of a famous book, All the Pretty Horses, written by Cormac McCarthy.

Where Did the Song Come From?

The exact beginning of "All the Pretty Little Horses" is not fully known. Many people believe it started with African-American people.

One idea, often shared by author Lyn Ellen Lacy, suggests the song was first sung by an enslaved African-American woman. She might have been too busy caring for her enslaver's child to look after her own baby. So, she would sing this song to the enslaver's child. While Lacy's book is about children's literature, not folk songs, some versions of the song have lyrics that make this idea seem possible.

For example, the famous music researcher Alan Lomax included a version in his book American Ballads and Folksongs. This version had a line: "Way down yonder, In de medder, There's a po' lil lambie, De bees an' de butterflies, Peckin' out its eyes, De po' lil lambie cried, "Mammy!"" Some people think "po' lil lambie cried, "Mammy"" might refer to enslaved people who were often separated from their own families. However, this part of the song is very different from the rest of the lullaby. This suggests it might have been added later or came from a different song.

Years before Alan Lomax, a writer named Dorothy Scarborough studied folk songs across the American South. She wrote about different versions of "All the Pretty Little Horses" in her 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folksongs. All the versions she found came from African-American people.

Song Lyrics

Over time, the lyrics to "All the Pretty Little Horses" have changed a little. Here are some of the popular versions.

Dorothy Scarborough's Version (1925)

Hush you bye, Don't you cry,

Go to sleepy, little baby.

When you wake,

You shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

Blacks and Bays,

Dapples and grays,

Coach and six a little horses.

Hush-a-by, Don't you cry,

Go to sleep, my little baby.

Popular Version

Hush you bye, Don't you cry

Go to sleep-y, my little ba - by.

When you wake, you shall have

All the pretty lit-tle hor-ses

Blacks and bays, Dap-ples and grays,

Coach---------- and six-a lit-tle hor - ses.

Hush you bye, Don't you cry,

Go to sleep-y lit-tle ba - by

When you wake, you'll have sweet cake, and

All the pret-ty lit-tle hor-ses

A brown and a gray and a black and a bay

and a Coach and six-a lit-tle hor - ses

A black and a bay and a brown and a gray and a Coach______________________

and six-a lit-tle hor-ses. Hush you bye,

Don't you cry, Oh you pret-ty lit-tle ba - by. Go to sleep-y lit-tle

ba - by. Oh________________ you pret-ty lit-tle ba-by.____