Nursery Rhymes›All the Pretty Little Horses
All the Pretty Little Horses
Key: A minor~60 BPMGuitar & Piano chordsTraditional · Appalachia, USA
All the Pretty Little Horses Lyrics. A traditional American lullaby with roots in the antebellum American South. Its subdued tone and imagery of horses and little birds make it a timeless bedtime classic. Here you will find the full lyrics, meaning, and chords for guitar and piano.
Sing & play
Lyrics & chords
The traditional words, with guitar & piano chords above each line.
Traditional verse
Am E Am
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
C G Am
Go to sleep, you little baby.
Am E Am
When you wake, you shall have
C G E Am
All the pretty little horses.
Refrain
Dm C Am
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys,
C G E Am
All the pretty little horses.
Play it
Chords — guitar & piano
Am
Guitar
Piano
C
Guitar
Piano
Dm
Guitar
Piano
E
Guitar
Piano
G
Guitar
Piano
Free printable chord sheet
All the Pretty Little Horses — guitar & piano chords
A clean, printable PDF of the chords on this page. Free for members — sign in to download.
Good to know
What “All the Pretty Little Horses” Means
Perhaps the most famous and most moving of all traditional American lullabies. It was born in the American South in the time of slavery, sung by enslaved African-American mothers who were made to care for their masters’ children while their own babies slept alone. It is a song that rose out of deep sorrow — and was transfigured, verse by verse, into a melody of almost unmatched tenderness. The promise of “all the pretty little horses” is a dream of comfort offered to a child, from a mother who had so little to give but her voice.
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