All the Pretty Little Horses/Hush-A-Bye

 "All the Pretty Little Horses" (also known as "Hush-a-bye") is a traditional lullaby from the United States. It has inspired dozens of recordings and adaptations, as well as the title of Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel All the Pretty Horses. The melody is also used in the score of the film Misty of Chincoteague based on the book by Marguerite Henry. 

The origin of this song is not fully known. The song is commonly thought to be of African-American origin. Author Lyn Ellen Lacy is often quoted as the primary source for the theory that suggests the song was "originally sung by an African-American slave who could not take care of her baby because she was too busy taking care of her master's child. She would sing this song to her master's child".^[1] However, Lacy's book Art and Design in Children's Books is not an authority on the heritage of traditional American folk songs, but rather a commentary on the art and design in children's literature. Still, some versions of "All the Pretty Little Horses" contain added lyrics that make this theory a possibility.

One such version of "All the Pretty Little Horses" is provided in the book American Ballads and Folksongs by prominent ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, though he makes no claim of the song's African-American origins. "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!"" Another version contains the lyrics "Buzzards and flies, Picking out its eyes, Pore little baby crying". The theory would suggest that the lyrics "po' lil lambie cried, "Mammy"" is in reference to the slaves who were often separated from their own families in order to serve their owners. However, this verse is very different from the rest of the lullaby, suggesting that the verse may have been added later or has a different origin from the rest of the song. The verse also appears in the song "Ole Cow" and older versions of the song "Black Sheep, Black Sheep".

A generation before Alan Lomax, writer Dorothy Scarborough, educated at Oxford University and holding a PhD from Columbia University, researched folk songs throughout the American South and devoted four pages of her book On the Trail of Negro Folksongs (1925) to variations of this song, all of which were provided, directly or indirectly, by African Americans. 

The best-known versions of the song are written from the perspective of the mother or caretaker singing a baby to sleep. The singer is promising the child that when he or she awakes, the child "shall have all the pretty little horses."

An extra verse appears in some versions of the song. The added lyrics appear to be from the perspective of an African-American caretaker who is singing about how her own baby, her "lambie", is not being cared for due to her care of her charge. The origin of this verse cannot be known, since the refrain also appears in the folksongs "Ole Cow" and "Black Sheep, Black Sheep". 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.

When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
Black and bays, dapples, grays,
All the pretty little horses.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.

When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.