Songs About Horses: Back in the Saddle Again

From the cowboy songs of the old west to more recent rock and roll and pop, horses are featured frequently in music. I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of those songs and the people who recorded them. 

Gene Autry is a good musician to begin with and he is considered one of the most influential singers of country music. 

His signature song? Back in the Saddle Again.

Sing Me a Song of the Saddle is another horsey song recorded by Autry. (Check out the horses in this video!)

My mother taught me to sing Jingle Jangle Jingle when I was little. She loved to watch westerns on TV and no doubt heard this song there. We would sing this around the house together.

Did you know that Gene Autry was the original singer of one of the most famous Christmas songs of all?

He recorded Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer in June, 1949 and a year after the success of Rudolph, recorded what became another holiday classic, Frosty the Snowman.

Gene Autry recorded too many more horsey themed songs to post here but they are easy to find - just google his name and they will pop up right up.

I will be posting more blog posts about horse-themed songs across a variety of musical genres. I have made quite a list, so stay 'tooned!

All in the Family

Recently my cousin, Mary, posted some photos of herself and her brother, Bobby, from when they were in elementary school. They were waiting for the school bus in front of their home in Elkhart, Indiana.

I smiled when I saw this one, and then I caught sight of the horse on Bobby's lunch box and my smile got even bigger.

How cool! And lucky Bobby! Was that Davy Crockett? Daniel Boone? Some other famous hero from the west?

I may not be sure who it is, but I am sure that that is the kind of lunch box I would want, even today!

Santa Tim's Workshop

Fall is such a beautiful time, and when there are horses around, it is even better. It is my favorite time of the year and, in my opinion, the best time to be out at the barn. It's cooler, there are fewer bugs and no mud, and the sun gives the world a golden tone.

There is a paddock made of old wooden fence posts and boards behind the old barn with some trees shading it, and it's a great "meeting place" for Abby and me when the horses are way out in the northwest pasture.

I can walk out through the paddock by the new barn and then across the northeast pasture and call to her from there.

She always comes - this girl likes her treats and she likes people.

After a relaxing visit the other day, I needed to go into the tack room and check my tack trunk for something so I headed back to the new barn. To get to the tack room, you have to walk through the lounge, and as I opened the lounge door, I saw this:

What looked like Santa's workshop!

Lots of wood chips, knives, wood blocks, beef jerky, whittling gloves, and cans of pop. Tim had been doing some whittling!

There were some pieces that had just been started,

 some that were about halfway done,

 and a few that were completed!

 They were absolutely charming!

I am not sure if these are Christmas gifts for his family (Loni, Tim's wife, occasionally reads this blog so I cleared it with him before posting any photos, just in case) or if Tim is just making them for fun, but "Santa Tim's" cowboy workshop is well underway.

Cowboy Party!

Tim and Loni hosted a cowboy party and hayride tonight out at the barn. What a fun evening - I looked forward to it all day. Craig and I arrived a little early; Tim was still setting up the new barn for his guests. (Tim has three barns, the old barn where the horses spend most of their indoor time, the new barn with an indoor arena, lounge, shop, tack room, and bathroom, and the blue barn which is rented out by a couple who own Rocky Mountain Spotted Horses.)

 He pulled one of the buggies he has restored out of the barn for guests to look at and sit in.

Inside the lounge of the new barn, Loni was setting up the beverage and dessert table. She had found these cute, cowboy boot shaped glasses on Amazon.

 The picture doesn't do them justice - they were my favorite part of the meal!

One serving table with bread, biscuits, and some salads was put up outside by the buggy.

 Tim's buckboard served as our chuckwagon.

He fixed pork chops for everyone - they were delicious! (You can see the blue barn in the background.)

Twelve couples came, some of them horse people but most of them not.

 The entrance to the new barn and its front porch - a nice place to sit on a cool fall evening!

 Tim does such lovely work on his restoration projects.

After we ate, Travis Horton brought out his guitar and we had a sing along.

If you look through the windows, that's the indoor arena and the stalls that line it. Tim likes his horses to roam free and does not stall them, but if one were ill or injured, he's got a nice set of stalls where they can recuperate.

It was a cool day, and as the sun set, it became very chilly inside and out.

 A fire was lit in the cast iron stove and the lounge quickly warmed up to a comfortable temperature.

 In between Travis' songs on the guitar, Blake Robertson and I read cowboy poetry at Tim's request.

I had never read any, and am now hooked! There is a sense of humor coupled with reality in them, and if you know horses or cattle, you will not have any trouble understanding their meaning.

Dinner and entertainment over, we moved on to the next part of the party - a hay ride! Tim hooked the hay wagon up to his truck, made some seats out of bales of straw, and took us through the fields in the dark.

He would stop periodically and tell the history of the area, - stories of William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh, the Battle of Tippecanoe, and the Potowatami Trail of Death that went through the property. The ride culminated in a spooky chain saw story, and with Brandon, Tim's son in law, jumping out at us from the dark, wearing a mask and carrying a chain saw. Only he could not get the chain saw to start, and we all dissolved into gales of laughter instead of being scared!

Hot chocolate at the house wrapped up a wonderful fall evening. I cannot recall the last time I went on a hay ride or heard scary stories in the dark. And certainly I've never read any cowboy poetry, either!

Sure hope Tim and Loni do this again.