I have plans to do something touristy today, and I considered sightseeing on horseback… until I saw the price tag. I decided to save a few (and by “few”, I mean “a lot of”) bucks and travel on foot instead. The reason I’m telling you this is that the brief consideration, combined with the fact that it’s Saturday, reminded me of this particular song.
I don’t think I’ve heard this one on the radio since the 90s. Too bad, it’s a good story— one that’s all-too-familiar for many. In some way, there’s a little bit of “Mary” in all of us. And I love the part about hanging on and then letting go.
Here’s Pam Tillis with Let That Pony Run…
Let That Pony Run (written by Gretchen Peters)
Mary was married with children,
had the perfect suburban life,
’til her husband came clean with the help of Jim Beam
and confessed all his sins one night.
Said he’d fallen in love with a barmaid,
said she made him feel reckless and young.
And when he got through, what else could she do?
She just let that pony run.
(chorus)
‘Cause you do what you gotta do,
and you know what you know.
You hang on till you can’t hang on,
then you learn to let go.
You get what you want sometimes,
but when it’s all said and done,
you do what you gotta do
then you let that pony run.
Now Mary moved to West Virginia,
after the shock wore off.
She got a divorce and a chestnut horse
and a barn with an old hayloft.
Sometimes she rides down by the river,
said it makes her feel reckless and young.
She just closes her eyes, and she holds on tight,
and she lets that pony run.
(repeat chorus)
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