Knee bobbing songs and little simple tickling rhymes are a great way to engage babies. These short little horse songs and rhymes are great for being slotted into routines – for changing time, or just as a little game!
Babies always love having a bounce on your knee and it’s a great way to introduce feeling the steady beat in music. The rhymes and repetition in these short knee bobbing songs are fantastic for speech development, so there’s plenty of educational value to regular knee bobbing songs as well as a lot of giggles!
Shoe The Little Horse Song
A cute litte tickling rhyme, which you can do on bare baby feet whenever the opportunity arises! You gently tap the sole in time to the rhythm of the words and tickle the toes on the bare, bare, bare! It usually causes great hilarity!
Shoe the little horse,
Shoe the little horse,
But let the little colt go,
Bare, bare, bare!
Jiggety Joggety Horse Song
This little horse song is sung to the sailor shanty tune of Over the Irish Sea and is great for encouraging knee bobbing movement.
A jiggety joggety on our horse
With Mummy and Baby and me,
A jiggety joggety bomp! And we’ll be
Home in time for tea!
(Sung to the tune Over the Irish Sea Pirate Shanty)
Clip Clip Clop Little Shetland Pony Song
This little horse song is set to the tune of April Showers from Bambi, so is easy and familiar. Again, this is a lovely little knee bobbing song and can be sung with very little ones.
Clip, clip, clop little Shetland Pony
Swish your tail and toss your mane
Clip, clip, clop little Shetland Pony
Bounce in the saddle and hold your reign!
(Sung to the tune of Disney’s April Showers)
My Anglo-Irish grandfather recited the rhyme to me this way:
Shoe the horse, shoe the mare,
Let the little foal go bare.
“Is John Smith’s son within?”
“Yes, sir, he is.”
“Then can he fit a shoe? And can he nail it too?”
Nail here, nail here, nail here…
Tick tack tick tack too!
That’s wonderful Mitch! Thank you for sharing, I love how versions vary from region to region! ❤️
Disney’s April Showers is not as familiar as you may think. I have been a children’s librarian for the past twenty years and the tune is not familiar to me nor is it familiar to the young families I serve.
Hi there! I’ve added the YouTube video of the clip from Bambi in case anyone doesn’t know it. It’s such a lovely clip too!