Ride the Pony Circle Game
TeamCarrasquillo, Jul 10, 2014
LCCPT knows how to enjoy lunch time!
Words:
Come on baby, ride that pony (3x)
This is how we do it
Front, front front my baby
Back, back, back, my baby
Side, side, side, my baby
This is how we do it.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This post also presents information and lyrics for these singing games. In addition, this post includes my opinion that the 19th century dance song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On"), and the 19th century singing game "Peep Squirrel" may have been precursors for the the performance activities for both of those 21st century singing games.
Part I & II are complete reprints with minor changes of pancocojams posts that were published in 2013.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post compares "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On) with two other songs: the 19th century Southern Black American song/old time banjo (Bluegrass) song "Whoa Mule Whoa" and the 19th century African American game song "Peep Squirrel". Part I also presents one sound file and two text (word only) versions of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics_17.html for Part II of this series. Part II is a complete reprint of a 2013 pancocojams post which continues the presentation of information about the history and early examples of the songs "Whoa Mule" and the African American song "Peep Squirrel".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/07/sound-file-lyrics-auto-generated.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III is a 2026 pancocojams post that showcases a 1950 sound file of Celina Lewis singing "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On"). That post also includes the lyrics for that rendition and Celina Lewis' comments about that song. In addition, that post includes my re-wording into standard English of Celina Lewis' comments.
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The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of the singing games "Ride the Pony" and "Little Sally Walker Walking Down The Street. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to all those who published these videos on YouTube.
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SIMILARITIES BETWEEN "RIDE THAT PONY" AND OTHER AFRICAN AMERICAN SINGING GAMES
Example #2 in Part I of this pancocojams series and Example #4 in Part II of this series allude to people labeling the way that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" was performed as being risque (sexually suggestive). Example #4 indicates that if the "wild" behavior that adults did while singing that song were known- it would get them thrown out of their church. It seems likely that that performance activity verged on sexualized horse play. Perhaps the men and women couples did piggyback rides when they sung "Ride the mule". Unless there is more documentation out there, we'll never know what was so risque about the movements that were done while singing that song that before singing her version (Example #2) Celina Hall had to basically tell church people to mind their own business.
The earliest example of the (probably African American originated) game song "Ride That Pony" that I've come across online is 2006 [Unfortunately, the YouTube video of this game song that was published in 2006 is no longer available.]
*Here's the title, date, and publisher for that 2006 video:
" Ride that Pony", vballprincess, Uploaded on May 4, 2006
"Me and team before volleyball game in reno having some fun. I am the one with the braids and gray shirt."
-snip-
Here's a comment from that video's discussion thread. (That discussion thread is now deleted because that video is no longer available.)
DefineNormal94, 2010
"We did this version at our One Act Play Competition:
Ride Ride Ride That Pony! (Repeat 2x) And this is how it goes! Front to front
to front to front baby! Side to side to side to side baby! Back to back to back
to back baby! This is how it goes! The whole game consisted of casts from 5
highschools, and a few kids from ODU. That's a lot of kids. When I did it, I
stopped in front of one of my fellow male cast members and was like
"NO!" and went to the next person cuz it would have been weird."
-end of quote-
I'm not saying that the performance activities of either of those 19th century songs are the same as the performance activity of "Ride That Pony". However, all three of those songs include elements that refer to one or more players performing specific movements such as running, chasing, trying to catch something or someone, trying to put a saddle on a pony (or on someone who represents a pony), and/or dancing in front of, back to back with someone, or besides someone else. As such, I believe it's likely that "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" and "Peep Squirrel" are precursors of "Ride That Pony".
"Little Sally Walker Walking Down The Sreet" and "Ride That Pony" are both circle switching games. At least one person in the center of the circle. At a certain point in both of those singing games, the center person arbitrarily chooses someone forming the circle and goes to stand in front of that person. The center persons does some type of dance in front of that person front to front, back to back, and side to side. After the side to side dancing, the center person switches places with the person she or he stood in front of and that person becomes the new center person. This pattern continues without pausing throughout the entire game . Some groups play this game with just one center person, but other groups have multiple center people at the same time. Each of those center people choose a different person to stand in front of.
Click https://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/11/little-sally-walker-ride-that-pony_9.html for the 2014 cocojams2 post ""Little Sally Walker Walking Down The Street" &"Ride That Pony" (Switching Places Games, Part 2)"
-snip-
cocojams2 is a companion blog of pancocojams that focuses on mostly African American children's recreational rhymes and singing games.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2- Ride That Pony Camp Game - Ultimate Camp Resource
ultimatecampresource, Aug 4, 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gdT0gl62Eg
"Ride That Pony
A fun singing camp game!
To start the game, one person stands in middle of the circle and everyone starts to clap in a rhythm. The person in the middle begins the game by galloping around the circle while the group sings the following song:
Here we go, ride that pony, ride around that big fat pony, this is how we do it. (move in a galloping motion, swinging hand over head.
The middle person then stops in front of someone else and both partners perform the following lines and actions.
Stand facing each other and swing arms in a circle in front of your body, keeping elbows in: "Front to front to front, my baby"
Jump so both are standing next to each other with the same arm motions as before: "Side to side to side, my baby"
Jump one last time so both are facing with backs to each other with the same arm motions are before: "Back to back to back, my baby, this is how we do it.
The person in the middle then switches places with the person they were just dancing with and the game continues until everyone has had a turn in the middle.
Once everyone as gone, the entire group sings all of verses
one last time while everyone (not just the partners) do the motions."
-snip-
The swinging your hand over your head motion is imitating cowboys/vowgirls swinging a lasso (rope.).
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3 -Ride That Pony
Camp Kesem Carnegie Mellon, Mar 16, 2020
We sing this song during camp activities!
Lyrics:
(Everybody stands in a circle with a few people in the
center who go around the circle pretending to ride on a horse)
Here we go, ride that pony
Ride around that big fat pony
Here we go, ride that pony
This is how we do it…
(People in the middle stop in front of a partner on the
outside of the circle)
(partners dance facing each other)
Front to front to front, my baby
(partners dance facing sideways)
Side to side to side, my baby
(partners dance with backs to each other)
Back to back to back, my baby
(Partners switch places and repeat the song with the new
people in the middle)
This is how we do it…
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #4 -Little Sally Walker :)
AnnaGraceBananaFace. Feb 25, 2009
Playing little sally walker in the munchkin room at the show
in Irving on the 23rd!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktfm3WjpqhQ
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #5- Little Sally Walker
Wolf Cub Cheerleading, Nov 8, 2016
This is a little game my cheerleaders like to play at the end of practice or when we have some down time. It encourages them to get to know each other and gives them a chance to show off their dance moves!
The song goes:
Little Sally Walker walking down the street (clap, clap)
She didn't know what to do, so she stopped in front of me,
she said, hey girl, do your thing, do your thing and switch
Visiting comments are welcome.
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