33 Best Songs About Horses

Horses are some of the most majestic and beautiful creatures on Earth, so it’s no wonder hundreds of songs have been written about them.

If you’ve been wondering about what some of those tracks are, well we’re going to tell you about the 33 best songs about horses that you should check out! 

1. White Horse – Taylor Swift 

Taylor Swift - White Horse

Released in 2006 on her second album Fearless is the song White Horse by Taylor Swift. This track was instantly a hit for her and helped her become a household name.

The horse in this song is used as a metaphor for falling in love but then realizing it won’t really happen. The track reached 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart

2. A Horse With No Name – America 

America - A Horse With No Name (Official Audio)

One of the most iconic songs on our list is A Horse With No Name by America, which came out in 1971. This rock track was huge and has become a legendary song with the melody continuing to be covered by several artists now. This track reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Record World Singles chart. 

3. Live Like Horses – Elton John 

Elton John needs no introduction as one of the most successful musicians in history, and in 1996, he released Live Like Horses. The song is all about wanting to have a free life and break free just like horses break out of a stall and the pasture, and the track reached number nine on the UK Singles chart.

4. Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones 

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses (Acoustic / Lyric Video)

The Rolling Stones released Wild Horses in 1971, and this song isn’t one of their famous ones, but it’s a great one nonetheless. It’s a song about freedom and how important it is for people to have freedom. The track reached number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has been featured in television shows and movies such as Adaptation and Stuck On You

5. Ride Me Back Home – Willie Nelson 

Willie Nelson - Ride Me Back Home (Official Video)

Next on our list is an iconic musician that has won several awards. The title track to the 2019 album, Ride Me Back Home by Willie Nelson is a song that uses horses as a metaphor for freedom. He had rescued a horse and used that as inspiration for this beautiful track. 

6. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses – U2

U2 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

U2 is one of the most famous rock bands in history, and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses from 1992 is a song that is about the divorce of band member Edge. The divorce and the track were difficult for the band, but it was cathartic and reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

7. Wild Horses – Garth Brooks 

Ga̲rth Bro̲o̲ks - No Fences (Full Album)

Garth Brooks is next on our list with his hit Wild Horses from 1990, which is a song about rodeos and a guy breaking a promise to his girl about not doing rodeos anymore. The wild horse is his weakness, and it’s a great track about country life and having a passion you can’t give up.

This song reached number seven on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

8. Heavy Horses – Jethro Tull 

Heavy Horses (2003 Remaster)

A band that a lot of us know is Jethro Tull, and in 1978, they released Heavy Horses, which goes into how there is not as much work now thanks to the horses in England taking it over. Even with that, he still has respect for those horses, and this song reached number 19 on the Billboard 200 chart. 

9. Old Town Road – Lil Nas X Feat. Billy Ray Cyrus

Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (Official Video) ft. Billy Ray Cyrus

Lil Nas X released Old Town Road in 2019 and remixed the song with Billy Ray Cyrus, which instantly became a hit. The track goes into dreaming of being a cowboy and giving up the material way of life he’d known.

Interestingly, it was TikTok that got this song famous, and one of the first times that a musician used the platform to help them promote their material. 

10. Ballad Of A Runaway Horse – Emmylou Harris 

Ballad of a Runaway Horse

Female country singer Emmylou Harris released Ballad Of A Runaway Horse in 1993, and this song is all about a horse that ran away, and the cowgirl has no idea how to find the horse. Likely, the track is a metaphor for a person. 

11. Tennessee Stud – Johnny Cash 

After Johnny Cash died, his son went through recordings that his dad made and released the song Tennessee Stud, which was on the album Among The Stars.

One of the best tracks off of the posthumous album, it’s all about going on fun adventures with your horse. 

12. American Horse – The Cult 

The Cult doesn’t need much of an introduction, and American Horse is one of the songs the band released on their 1989 album Sonic Temple. The horse in this track is a metaphor, and it’s very dark because it’s symbolizing Native Americans being whipped and abused.

13. Another Horsedreamer’s Blues – Counting Crows 

Another Horsedreamer's Blues

The Counting Crows released Recovering The Satellites in 1996, and the song Another Horsedreamer’s Blues was one of the big hits from this album. It’s all about a woman who uses horse racing, pills, drinking, and gambling to escape her home life. 

14. Beer For My Horses – Toby Keith  Feat. Willie Nelson

Toby Keith - Beer For My Horses (Official Music Video) ft. Willie Nelson

Toby Keith is a country music superstar and his song Beer For My Horses, which was released in 2002 on Unleashed and featured Willie Nelson. It’s all about the Wild West and how the evil guys were taken care of and handled in those days. The track reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and 22 on the Hot 100 chart

15. Wild Horses – Natasha Bedingfield 

Natasha Bedingfield - Wild Horses (Official Audio)

Natasha Bedingfield released Wild Horses in 2004 on her album Unwritten. This song uses horses as a metaphor for freedom and the freedom of not having responsibilities in life. It was a popular track, and one of those songs that we all relate to because none of us like responsibility. 

16. No Reins – Rascal Flatts 

Country group Rascal Flatts released No Reins in 2008, and the horses are used as a metaphor for women and how a girl has chosen to get out of a bad relationship where the guy has been very controlling. It’s a great track that a lot of women in abusive or controlling relationships can relate to.

Recommended: Songs about toxic relationships

17. The Wild Horse – Rod Stewart 

The Wild Horse (2008 Remaster)

Up next is the legendary singer Rod Stewart who released The Wild Horse in 1988 on the Out Of Order album. In this song, he is talking about some of the things he’s done over the years including traveling and falling in love. It’s a track about living your life like a wild horse, and it’s one of the coolest songs he’s released. 

18. Dark Horses – Switchfoot 

SWITCHFOOT - DARK HORSES

Switchfoot is a Christian rock group that released Dark Horses in 2011 on Vice Verses, and it’s a great song about being the underdog. There is a lot of imagery in this track that is dark, but the song is uplifting and uses the horses as a metaphor. 

19. Three Horses – Joan Baez 

Joan Baez released Three Horses in 1971, and this song is amazing because it’s about a white horse that represents the past. The horse talks about his past and a red horse shows up which stands for the present while a black horse shows up but cannot talk because he has no tongue. 

20. Fallen Horses – Smash Mouth 

Smash Mouth might be known for their song on the movie Shrek, but on their 1999 album Astro Lounge was the song Fallen Horses. The track talks about death and how the character wants to be with his departed loved ones again.

It’s a sad track talking about loss and grief with the horses being people from our lives that died and moved on. 

21. Wildfire – Michael Martin Murphey 

Michael Martin Murphey sang an amazingly sad song when he released Wildfire in 1975. The track is about a little girl who dies in the freezing cold after looking for her pony that got out of his stall. She runs around the freezing blizzard conditions yelling the pony’s name, which was Wildfire. This song reached number one on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track was used in The Simpsons and remains a classic song today. 

22. Rider In The Rain – Randy Newman 

Next up is Randy Newman with Rider In The Rain, which he released on his 1977 album Little Criminals. This is a cowboy song about riding a horse all around the prairie trying for a better life, and it’s simply a country tune a lot of people can relate to. This track has been on a couple of television shows

23. She Could Run – Lacy J. Dalton 

Lacy J. Dalton released She Could Run in 2006 about a racehorse, and it’s a pretty song about the horse having a lovely spirit and being free. It’s one of those tracks where we all dream of being that horse and living free. While it wasn’t a huge hit, it’s a classic song about how we all wish we could just run away from our lives and get away from our responsibilities even just for a minute. 

24. A Horse In The County – Cowboy Junkies 

Cowboy Junkies - A Horse in the Country (Official Video)

Cowboy Junkies and their song A Horse In The Country from the 1992 album Black Eyed Man is great because the horse is a metaphor and may represent freedom or love depending on how you look at the track. This song could also be about not being happy in your current situation whether it’s a relationship or something else, and it’s a great use of a horse as a metaphor. 

25. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall 

KT Tunstall - Black Horse And The Cherry Tree (Official Video)

Black Horse And The Cherry Tree was a popular song from KT Tunstall in 2004, and it’s catchy since it talks about being a black horse and standing near a cherry tree and trying to choose a path after being lost. There’s a lot of emotion and metaphors in this track, which helped it reach number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peak at number one on the Adult Alternative Songs chart.

26. Just Like Them Horses – Reba McEntire 

Reba McEntire - Just Like Them Horses (Official Music Video)

Country superstar Reba McEntire had a huge hit with Just Like Them Horses in 2015, and this track reached 37 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The track is about a friend of hers that was dying and her father was also dying, so it’s an emotional song where horses are the metaphor. 

27. Chasin’ Wild Horses – Bruce Springsteen 

Bruce Springsteen - Chasin' Wild Horses (Official Audio)

The Boss doesn’t need an introduction. Chasin’ Wild Horses is one of the most popular songs by Bruce Springsteen, which was released in 2019. In this track, the horse is a metaphor for both his temper and mistakes from the past. He uses cowboy imagery to tell a tale of his wild temper and the mistakes he has made in the past. The main point of the song is that getting away from your past is as hard as chasing wild horses. 

28. Appaloosa – Gino Vannelli 

Gino Vannelli released Appaloosa in 1978 on his album Brother To Brother, and this song is all about the horse breed that has colored spots on it and how beautiful it is, which is used as a metaphor in the track. 

29. Back In The Saddle Again – Gene Autry 

Gene Autry - Back in the Saddle Again (from Back in the Saddle 1941)

Gene Autry made a hit with the cowboy song Back In The Saddle Again in 1939, and this song is about being a cowboy. It’s about just living outside and sleeping under the stars where you can ride your horse and shoot your gun anytime you want. The track was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1997, and it was ranked 98 in the Best Songs of The Twentieth Century poll by voters that were selected by the RIAA. 

30. Three White Horses – Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird - Three White Horses

Andrew Bird released Three White Horses in 2012 on his Hands Of Glory album, and the song uses horses as a metaphor for appreciating what we have in life and how quickly it can all be gone. It’s a track that will make you reflect and feel gratitude for what you have. This song can be about being judged by others as well, so it’s open to interpretation. 

31. Let That Pony Run – Pam Tillis 

Pam Tillis - Let That Pony Run

Country star Pam Tillis makes our list with the song Let That Pony Run, which came out in 1992. This is a track about letting go of a relationship or bad situation and the pony in this case is what you let go of in your life. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. 

32. She Rides Wild Horses – Kenny Rogers 

She Rides Wild Horses

Kenny Rogers and his hit from 1999 She Rides Wild Horses is all about a woman dreaming of freedom and escaping her life and wanting to live free like a wild horse. The song is one of the many that use the horse as the metaphor, and it’s worth a listen! 

33. Crazy Horses – The Osmonds 

The Osmonds released Crazy Horses in 1972, which was more popular outside of the US with it only reaching number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It’s a great song reflecting on air pollution and how bad cars and exhausts are, so the horses are a great metaphor.

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