"The Horse You Rode In On"

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“And the horse you rode in on”
 
”...and the horse you rode in on” (there’s a first part to that—see the  
citations below) appears to be from some western movie. Citations have been  
found from the early 1970s, and the phrase was possibly current during the  
Korean War in the 1950s. 


_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=k1Xvd6dXjPoC&pg=RA2-PA92&lpg=
RA2-PA92&dq="friends+of+eddie+coyle"+"horse+you+rode"&source=web&ots=-cea1fuRV-&sig=L5asOmKkrniyWz_OT9A5H0E-qG4)  
The Friends of Eddie Coyle 
by George Vincent Higgins  
Owl Books 
2000 
(original printing—New York: Knopf 1972) 
Pg. 92:  
Eddie Coyle smiled. “Fuck you, lady,” he said, ”and the horse you  rode in 
on.” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00644832&id=MIAaAAAAMAAJ&q="you+and+the+horse"&dq="you+and+the+horse"&ie=ISO-8859-1&pgis=1)  
The Cowboy and the Cossack 
by Clair Huffaker  
Trident Press 
1973 
Pg. 31: 
On this occasion he said shortly,  “Fuck you and the horse you rode up on.” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0822211262&id=Kh4Etd_swwkC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq="and+the+horse+you"&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=4x-a3wNsSYK0Mf8C
QpHpf631_a8)  
That Championship Season: Screenplay 
by Jason Miller  
Dramatists Play Service 
1995 (1972 play, 1982 film) 
Pg. 31: 
TOM.  Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, as my old grandmother used to 
say.  

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0312280815&id=DpHFTiZPhVoC&pg=RA2-PA264&lpg=RA2-PA264&dq="you+and+the+horse"&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=GkdRzc
XYfRxOmXx6_kQFZT831Ps)  
The Marines of Autumn: A Novel of the Korean War 
by  James Brady 
New York: St. Martin’s Press 
2001 
Pg. 264: 
“Fuck you  and the horse you rode in on!” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0743249550&id=mYKz0jAVOBwC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq="you+and+the+horse"&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=DewVDXS7uFIRy6sD
S0XZPwkBh3A)  
No Uncerain Terms 
by William Safire 
New York: Simon  and Schuster 
2003 
Pg. 13: 
The first use in fictional dialogue that I  can find is in George V. Higgins’
s 1972 classic hard-boiled novel, The  Friends of Eddie Coyle. 

“I first heard it when I was driving a truck  for Coca-Cola,” recalls Mr. 
Higgins, whose most recent novel is A Change of  Gravity. “It must have been 
about the summer of 1960.” The late 50s appears  to be the time of the phrase’s 
genesis; Michael Seidman, editor of Charles  Durden’s 1976 No Bugles, No 
Drums, another novel using the entire line,  remembers the insult he heard growing 
up in the Bronx in that post-Korean War  era: (Pg. 14— ed.) “...and the white 
horse rode in on and all your relatives in  Brooklyn.” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0743282302&id=RMKgNOytMWIC&pg=RA1-PA239&lpg=RA1-PA239&dq="you+and+the+horse"&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=cDTTJU
akk0WhXDwZAXsG0UPIwf4)  
President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination 
by Richard  Reeves 
New York: Simon and Schuster 
2005 
Pg. 239: 
(Donald—ed.)  Regan treated Baker to one of his favorite lines: “Fuck you 
and the horse you  rode in on.” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0743293304&id=dqEO-cIDCHwC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq="and+the+horse+you"&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=ko37NcVviWGJBH5r
xYlmW6t7Jvc)  
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril 
by Paul Malmont 
New  York:Simon and Schuster 
2006 
Pg. 73: 
“Anyone know the origin of the  expression ‘and the horse you rode in on’? 
As in, ‘to hell with you and the  horse you rode in on’? I was writing that 
today and I got to wondering where it  had actually come from.” 

“Nick Carter?” The Flash said, reminding them  of the first Street & Smith 
hero, who had fathered their profession. “From  the days of the real Old West.”
 


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