Up Hill Ride Me Not Lyrics
A horse speaks to the person riding it. It asks not to be ridden hard uphill, not to be galloped downhill, to be pushed on over the level ground and not to be forgotten in the stable.
Up Hill Ride Me Not
Up hill ride me not;
Down hill gallop me not;
On level ground spare me not;
And in the stable forget me not.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/up-hill-ride-me-not/
- Type
- Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Spoken in a steady trot, four beats to a line
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Up hill ride me not | Lean forward as if climbing a slope, then hop off and walk beside the horse. |
| Down hill gallop me not | Walk slowly down, holding back with small steps. |
| On level ground spare me not | Trot briskly on flat ground. |
| And in the stable forget me not | Pat an imaginary horse and give it a handful of pretend hay. |
What Does Up Hill Ride Me Not Mean?
The speaker is a horse, talking to the person who rides it. Each line is a rule for a different kind of ground, and the rules show how a good rider thinks about the animal:
- Uphill, the horse asks not to be ridden. Climbing is hard work, so the usual reading is that the rider should get off and walk.
- Downhill, it asks not to be galloped. A gallop on a slope is dangerous for the horse and the rider.
- On level ground, spare me not means do not hold back. The horse is happy to go on at a good pace when the going is easy.
- In the stable, forget me not asks the rider to remember to feed, water and rub down the horse after the ride.
The rhyme works as a memory aid. Four short lines, each ending in me not, are easy to remember, and the rhythm sounds like four steps of a horse. The last line also echoes the name of the flower, forget-me-not.
History and Origin
The verse is in Gammer Gurton's Garland, a small collection of nursery verses that first appeared at Stockton as a twopenny booklet; Sir Harris Nicholas, who is quoted in the book's note, said it came out in 1783. The copy used here is the 1810 London edition, reprinted in Glasgow in 1866 by Hugh Hopkins.
The book calls the verse The Speech of the Horse that Spoke to His Master, and introduces this wording with the sentence Sometimes the speech of the horse reminds his master of that which is better.
Learning Activities
- Hobby horse: use a broom or a toy horse and walk, trot and gallop it to match each line.
- Stable care: pretend to feed, water and brush the horse after the ride.
- Slope talk: on a walk, point out a slope and ask which line fits: up or down?
- A speech for another animal: write four lines of advice from a dog or a cat to its owner.