Horses have always played a central role in country music. It’s impossible to think of cowboys and the vast, dusty lands of the South without imagining horse-back riders, rickety old wagons and ranches that spread far and wide across the burning horizon.
Our list of songs about horses collects some of the best country songs, about the animal which gave so much to Southern culture.
Country Songs About Horses
1. Reuben Brock – Black Horse Through Hell
We love it when old-school musicians blow their younger counterparts out of the water. Reuben Brock’s Black Horse To Hell carries a distinct and captivating chorus melody that blends the essence of his generation’s country rock with a compelling modern twist.
This track is completely hypnotic, laced with fiddle riffs and loaded with fiery crimson imagery.
Black Horse To Hell tells the story of running away from the coming storm on a black horse through hell, using stunning scenery to illustrate a man’s wild escape, “Cold wind blows before the rain, but I can’t stay here any more … With a dark red sky the clouds roll by, no way to tell if the path is clear for my escape.”
Underlying Brock’s horse metaphor is the hinting of an apathetic break up which summoned the narrator’s need to bound through the wreckage and back into peace, “Always at war, don’t want to fight you any more.”
This is a song for anyone wanting to travel far and free from a life streaked with disaster.
2. Justin McBride – Good Saddles Ain’t Cheap
Justin McBride’s song holds a wealth of classic country storytelling techniques within its lyrics.
He sets his scene with a spoken-word intro, before propelling into the character of a shop-keeper who imparts his life-long learned horse-riding advice to a seven year old boy.
The love for horses and life on the ranch are often a generational thing, passed down from father to son to grandson; a sentiment Good Saddles Ain’t Cheap holds close to its heart.
McBride’s chorus says it perfectly; “Good saddles ain’t cheap but they’re worth every dime, you’ll be glad you’ve got one when you’re on a long ride, you know a deal and a bargain are often misunderstood, good saddles ain’t cheap, cheap saddles ain’t good.”
McBride bravely highlights the subtle risk of animal cruelty that comes with downgrading your gear; “You might save yourself a few dollars, feel pretty smart at the time, but there’s nothing that hurts any smarter than a galled raw blistered behind.. not to mention your poor horse’s back.”
3. Dave Stamey – Come Ride With Me
Come Ride With Me is a sweet country song that embraces the freedom of horse-back adventures through the broad and endless country.
Dave Stamey asks his parter to ride with him as he leads through the winding trails that compose his home away from home.
He douses his track in sweeping scenery, crafting his song like the words of a cowboy tour-guide showing his wide-eyed crowd America’s natural wonders for the first time.
From the “smell of leather, the sunlight on your skin.. the dust in your hair, the light in your eyes…” to “camping near the meadow, we’ll love the night away and saddle up again, when the dawn in turnin’ grey.”
Come Ride With Me is wonderfully evocative of the life of the natural beauty a horseman will get to experience and adore, day after day.
4. Brenn Hill – Monster On Your Back
Brenn Hill’s track harnesses a sound as powerful as a wild stampede, twisting traditional elements into a gripping contemporary country anthem.
Monster On Your Back captures a tough-guy attitude, opening on the compellingly hilarious line, “I’ve rode this mountain seventy years I’ve been alive, choked on rocks and rattlesnakes, a wonder I’ve survived,” setting the scene for his old-school manly track about being the most fearsome creature of the wild.
Brenn addresses his song to his horse, fleshing out his dominance over the animal and highlighting how age will never dull a cowboy’s inner drive;
“You think that if you buck me off that I won’t get back on… You think that this old man ain’t tough like he once used to be, try me one more time and you will see.”
5. Red Steagall – About Horses And War
Red Steagall masterfully uses the storytelling inherent to good, old fashioned country music to tell the magnetic tale of a young cowboy riding by horse to the next town across, where he “dances till morning with the prettiest ladies and tells ‘em stories about horses and war.”
Steagall twists the story into one of nostalgia and wishing for your golden days to return, illustrating the cowboy’s life with compelling, character-building details;
“He’s seen in his lifetime a gas-powered jeepney, then a picture they sent back from Mars, but all that he prays for is to ride off to glory on the back of that ol’ piebald horse.”
6. Brooks Dunn ft. Reba McEntire – Cowgirls Don’t Cry
Brooks Dunn dedicated his song to the strength of cowgirls in a male-dominated world.
He shows how vital life lessons can be learnt through horse-riding, his chorus speaking like a father to his little cowgirl, “Cowgirls don’t cry, ride, baby, ride, lessons in life are going to show you… It’s gonna hurt every now and then, if you fall, get back on again, cowgirls don’t cry.”
The narrator follows the cowgirl throughout every turn of her life, showing how the endurance and willpower learned from her horse-riding childhood gives her the honest strength to carry her through every devastating experience that tries to knock her down.
7. Geogre Strait – If Heartbreaks Were Horses
George Strait captures the melancholic nostalgia of being heartbroken under the hues of sunset.
If Heartbreaks Were Horses is about a ranch-man who embarks on his horse for his long day’s work, knowing that as he travels, his wife has been “packing her things since I put the coffee on.”
Strait threads together his track by constantly alluding to the animal he’s been raised to love, as if attempting to distract himself and hopelessly fill the chasm of loneliness left by his disappearing partner;
“Damn this ol’ girth, worn right in two, but a spare length of leather and I’ll make it do, just when I think I’ve got life by the reins, home ain’t sweet home out on the range.”