Dead Horses

The saddest thing I think
That I ever saw
Was a little buckskin pony
Mourning from her stall
The mama lay beside the fence
Under a tarp out in the rain
Peeking from the plastic
Was her honey-colored mane
I sat down on a water trough
Wrung my hands and cried,
"Suppose we're all just animals
With slightly different hides"

I never got used to watching horses die
They die badly, it has kept me up at night
I never got used to watching horses die
Count my pretty ponies
When I greet the morning light

The horses got to running
On one cooling summer day
Feeling fine and frisky
Till a hole got in the way
The bossmare tore her shoulder
Her stance was at a tilt
Now she's softly sleeping under
The green alfalfa quilt
Graddy Preweitt took his Bobcat
And buried her for me
The dead wagon must turn around
How happy I should be

I never got used to watching horses die
They die badly, it has kept me up at night
I never got used to watching horses die
Count my pretty ponies
When I greet the morning light

Wild horses are in excess
Herds are growing by the day
The once prized domestic pet
Ain't worth the price of hay
They've been turned out on to strip mines
Get to starving once it's snowed
They'll wander off the mountain top
To lick salt off of the roads
This little girl inside me
Is chomping at the bit
She cannot save them all
A truth hard to admit

I never got used to watching horses die
They die badly, it has kept me up at night
I never got used to watching horses die
Count my pretty ponies
When I greet the morning light

I never got used to watching horses die
Count my pretty ponies
When I greet the morning light