Childhood Game

The Pony Game – Seattle

In this game, you stand in a circle around a person. Everyone claps and sings the following while the person “gallops” around the circle:

“Here I go, on a pony.

Riding on a big fat pony.

Here I go on a pony.

All around the circle”

Then the person stops where he or she is standing and turns to the person nearest him or her. The two, facing each other, start dancing together and singing, “Front-to-front-to-front, my baby” (shimmy movement), “Back-to-back-to-back, my baby,” “Side-to-side-to-side my baby. All around the circle.” During this last line of the song, the two partners switch so the new person is galloping around the circle now. The songs starts over from the beginning.

According to Abby, this game is played when you’re bored and have nothing else to do. Also, it is a good way to keep kids occupied, she said. Originally, she learned the game at a choir camp, and her choir group in high school continued it ever since. “I love this game,” she said. “It’s excellent.”

To me, this game sounds suspiciously like one of those “get to know each other games” one plays at camps, leadership conferences, orientations, etc. However, Abby told me this isn’t so, and that it’s more just for fun and to keep people occupied.

I suppose the variation possible in the dancing and speed of the singing keeps its participants occupied for a very long time. If this is its purpose, I can see why now, in hindsight, games like these were always so popular in my elementary schools. Perhaps for a those years, my teachers were just trying to control us. Too bad, they didn’t know the Pony Game!