There Was a Little Nobby Colt Lyrics
Nobby Gray is a little colt with a head of straw and a tail of hay, who can ramble, trot and carry a mustard-pot round Woodstock.
There Was a Little Nobby Colt
There was a little nobby colt,
His name was Nobby Gray;
His head was made of pouce straw,
His tail was made of hay.
He could ramble, he could trot,
He could carry a mustard-pot,
Round the town of Woodstock,
Hey, Jenny, hey!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/there-was-a-little-nobby-colt/
- Type
- Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Chanted with a trotting beat
- Best for ages
- 2 to 5 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| He could ramble, he could trot | Tap your knees slowly, then faster. |
| He could carry a mustard-pot | Carry an imaginary pot carefully in both hands. |
| Hey, Jenny, hey! | Throw both hands up and cheer on the last word. |
What Does There Was a Little Nobby Colt Mean?
Nobby Gray is more like a toy than a real horse: his head is made of pouce straw and his tail of hay. Pouce is an old local word that the old collections leave unexplained; the line simply says his head was made of a kind of straw. The rhyme lists what he can do. He can ramble, which means wander, and trot, and the funniest thing is that he can carry a mustard-pot.
The last line, Hey, Jenny, hey!, is a cheer.
History and Origin
Andrew Lang includes the rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book (1897). James Orchard Halliwell files it among the local rhymes, the ones about places, in The Nursery Rhymes of England. Woodstock is a market town in Oxfordshire, England.
Learning Activities
- Trot and ramble: trot on the spot, then stroll slowly, and swap at the call of the rhyme.
- Straw colt: make a small horse from paper, with a straw mane and a hay tail.
- Carry the pot: carry a pot of plastic beans across a room without spilling.