This is a song for playing with young children on your lap…

Notes

Here's a version from Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 (1917) (This is the version in the mp3 recording):

This is the way the ladies ride-
Saddle-a-side, saddle-a-side!
This is the way the gentlemen ride-
Sitting astride, sitting astride!
This is the way the grandmothers ride-
Bundled and tied, bundled and tied!
This is the way the babykins ride-
Snuggled inside, snuggled inside!

Here's the version from The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright:

This is the way the ladies ride,
Tri, tre, tre, tree,
Tri, tre, tre, tree!
This is the way the ladies ride,
Tri, tre, tre, tre, tri-tre-tre-tree!

This is the way the gentlemen ride,
Gallop-a-trot,
Gallop-a-trot!
This is the way the gentlemen ride,
Gallop-a-gallop-a-trot!

This is the way the farmers ride,
Hobbledy-hoy,
Hobbledy-hoy!
This is the way the farmers ride,
Hobbledy-hobbledy-hoy!

Barbara D. Martin sent this version:

This is the way the lady rides:
Trot-lot, trot-lot, trot-lot, trot-lot.
(Bounce child gently on knee on the trot-lots.)

This is the way the gentleman rides:
Gallopy, gallopy, gallopy, gallopy.
(A little bouncier ride.)

This is the way the cowboy rides:
Giddyup, giddyup, giddyup, yeehaw!
(Alternate knees, moving child from knee to knee, at the end move hands in a large circle like a lasso and move child way high on the yeehaw.)

This is the way the old man rides:
Harumph, harrumph, harumph, harumph.
(Move knees and child side to side, feet on floor.)

This is the way the farmer rides:
Hobbledy hoy, hobbledy hoy!
(Gently bounce high and in all directions.)

The words to the mp3 below can be found in the Notes.

Download

Recited by Ruth Golding.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

The first version of this rhyme can be found in Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17), Fun and Thought for Little Folk (1912). The illustrations are from The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897). Thanks to Barbara D. Martin for sending her version.