> Folk Music > Songs > I Whipped My Horse

I Whipped My Horse

[ Roud 3627 ; Ballad Index SKE71 ; VWML CJS2/9/2562 ; Mudcat 48893 ; trad.]

Cecil Sharp collected I Whipped My Horse on 15 September 2016 from Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, Northern Carolina [VWML CJS2/9/2562] .

Fay Hield sang I Whipped My Horse in 2023 on his and Thomm Jutz’s Topic album of songs collected from Mary Sands and Jane Gentry by Cecil Sharp in the Southern Appalachians in 1916, Nothing But Green Willow.

Lyrics

Fay Hield sings i Whipped My Horse

I whipped my horse till I cut the blood, (×3)
Then I made him trod the mud.

Chorus (after each verse):
Coy ma lin dow, kill ko, kill ko,
Coy my lin dow, kill ko me.

I fed my horse in a poplar trough, (×3)
And there he caught the whooping cough.

I fed my horse in a silver spoon, (×3)
And then he kicked it over the moon.

My old horse is dead and gone, (×3)
But he’s left his jaw bones ploughing the corn.