Okay, most of us know that song that goes, “She ran calling Wiiiiiiiiiiildfireeeeeee…”
What is it about? It sounds like some young girl who had a horse named Wildfire (d’uh), and then she died, and the horse was depressed or something, and then the guy keeps seeing her ghost on the horse?
Or am I wrong? What’s the deal?
Thanks.
Wildfire busted out of his stall in the middle of winter, the girl went to find her horse, neither were seen again.
I think. The lyrics are both melodramatic and nonsensical, as you will see.
I think John T has it right. It was actually a pony- why a grown woman would have a little pony instead of a full-sized horse is beyond me, unless it was a childhood pet, but for some reason he decided to make a break for it in the middle of a blizzard, and the woman/girl (I get the sense from the song that she was about college age, somehow), put on her snow pants and went looking for him, and got lost herself, instead of doing the sensible thing and waiting for it to stop blizzarding and wait for Wildfire to come home (and horses do have an uncanny knack for finding their way home), or go looking for the carcass.
I drug this sucker out and listened to it again after many years. It appears the girl dies and the horse “busted down his stall” and “in a blizzard he was lost”.
I’m assuming the horse died looking for the girl. The singer is haunted by her death and awaits his own death after which he and the girl will ride Wildfire forever.
Just a WAG, of course.
Uh-uh. She ran calling “Wiiiiildfiiiiiire” because she was chasing the horse when there came a killing frost.
Well,this is just my take on it but when they say ‘pony’ they mean ‘horse’. Where I’m from, pony has two meanings.One is any horse in general or it can mean those ugly half-sized horses we all rode at the fair as kids.IMO,the girl mentioned in the song was just t hat…a girl.In my mind, I always see her as between 8 and 10 years of age and we all know how attached kids get to their pets.Wildfire became frightenend by the blizzard and kicked down his stall and she died when she went out searching for him.The guy in the second verse who plants by the light of the moon is her father and he is mourning her death later on in his life.That’s why he wants to go riding with her on her pony out in the wild ghosty yonder.
But that’s JMHO.
IDBB
About three and a half minutes too long?
“Oh, they say she died one winter
When there came a killing frost
And the pony she named Wildfire
Busted down his stall
In a blizzard he was lost”
Some confusion about the order of events it seems. Looks like the horse got loose and she died looking for him.
I stand corrected. 
Dave Barry has a hilarious riff on this somewhere, in his “Terrible Lyrics” essays, citing the line “And then there came a killing frost.” A “killing frost,” he goes on to point on, will harm some tender vegetables maybe, but never did a mammal of any kind any real harm. But it rhymes, and it scans, and hey, it’s only a song…
When I must endure this song for any reason (such as it playing on the office radio or wherever), I usually add my own chorus:
When the refrain is repeated “she ran calling wildfire-” I’ll call “WILDFIRE?” in my best imitation of Spiny Norman’s “DINSDALE?” routine from Monty Python.
Yes, it’s very immature, but I aquired it a long time ago and never outgrew it.
Well my dictionary says pony can refer to any horse under 58 inches at the withers. Which would include horses big enough for adultsto ride. (It also says it can refer to mustangs and broncos, as a breed.) So there you go.
Still a terrible song though .
pseudotriton, you forgot the part about changing the song to be about her lost tomato, Wildfire.
One other element:
As a kid, this song creeped me out – I saw it more as a Ghost story – all that stuff about Owl’s hootin’ and “she’s coming for me I know” …
it always scared the crap outta me took it more threatening
I actually like the song. Oh well. Thanks.
I’m with jimmmy. Reading the posts makes the song sound dumb, but before it has always given me the creeps.
Creeped me out too and it’s kind of a favorite. Now I gotta go look at the lyrics…
Michael Martin Murphey talked to The Boot about his biggest hit.
Read More: Story Behind The Song: ‘Wildfire,’ Michael Martin Murphey | Story Behind The Song: Michael Martin Murphey, 'Wildfire'
sad that you feel that way…because as a horse lover…it’s beautiful…I can’t even sing it Karaoke because it makes me cry
Zombie horsies!
(People may have changed their opinions on the song in the almost thirteen years since anyone thought about it around here.)
Nope. It still sucks.