I ride an Old Paint

Many of the cowboy songs that have come down to us from the 19th century were originally sung not primarily to pass the long, often lonely hours on a cattle trail, but to keep control over the herd. Easy, loping songs such as "I Ride an Old Paint" had a lulling effect on the cattle, and would calm them during a thunderstorm or after other unexpected sounds that might induce a stampede. A"Paint" is a spotted horse such as a pint; "dogies " are motherless calves with swelled bellies or (dough-guts)from eating grass. "coulees" are ravinelike depressions in the prairie; and to "throw the hoolian" is to leap from the saddle, grab the horns of a galloping steer, and force it to the ground, an action that is also know as bulldogging.

I ride an old paint, I lead an old Dan

I'm going to Montan' for th throw the hoolinan

They feed in the coulees , the water in the draw

Their tails are all matted, their backs are all raw.

chorus

Ride around little doggies, ride around them slow

for the fiery and the snuffy are a rarin' to go.

Old Bill Jones had two daughters and a song;

One went to Denver and the other went wrong.

His wife, she died in a pool room fight,

Still he sings from morning to night.

Chorus

Oh ,when I die, take my saddle from the wall,

Put it on my pony, lead him out of the stall,

Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west,

And we'll ride the prairie that we love the best.

Chorus