Billy Goat

Billy Goat was a tuckapaw
a hard trotting little gelding
but at a dead run
your face on his neck
the ground was a blur

When I left the ranch
the days of the big drives past
he was a pensioner
I never got around to asking
what became of him

Whether he died in the pasture
he had known all his life
or was sold off
to an ignominious end
I'd rather not know

I'll remember those races over hills
turning runaway herds
that back breaking trot
that even posting couldn't overcome
he was a real cowpony
who made his rider a real cowboy