The title All the Pretty Horses alludes to a traditional American lullaby, “All the Pretty Little Horses,” which is of unclear origin. The horses of the lullaby are a promise to a child and an invocation to dream, and McCarthy taps into that desire in John Grady’s character, whose love and respect for horses is a clear driver of his journey and his identity; when he’s in prison, the novel even goes so far as to say “horses [are] always the right thing to think about” (204). McCarthy evokes the lullaby to connect John Grady’s infatuation with an idealized version of the American West to the living animals that embody his dreams and values.

Horses are often described with lush detail, emphasizing their inextricable role in ranching life and vaquero culture. McCarthy builds on this portrayal to establish a dual identity in horses in Part 2. First, horses are natural beings that belong outside of the domain of humanity and have a spiritual significance. When they are up in the mountains, an old man John Grady works with tells him “it would be pointless to speak of no horses in the world for God would not permit such a thing” (111).