A nursery rhyme

[Dale Coye]

Though most people in the US today say "FOR hed" DARE tells us that this is a
spelling pronunciation that has pirated the traditional pronunciation without
the /h/.  The vowel can be either /a/ (found on the E.Coast) or whatever
vowel you use in 'for' -- and of course the same goes for 'horrid'.  Most
Americans have the vowel of 'for' (open o or /o/) but on the E. Coast it's often /a/.
  Loss of /h/ was not unusual after a stressed syllable--vehicle, annihilate.

Dale Coye
The College of NJ