Tanya Tucker's Horse, Ginnin Jessie, Dies: 'You're Free Now'
Michael King Tanya Tucker is mourning the loss of a beloved member of her family. The singer's horse, Ginnin Jessie, has died.
Tucker shared a photo of herself and Ginnin Jessie — a chestnut horse with a white diamond on his forehead — to social media when she shared the sad news with fans. In the snapshot, the singer is giving him a kiss and holding a bag of baby carrots.
"I lost my sweet ol man tonight," Tucker writes. "Ginnin Jessie (Jessie Rey's son). A piece of me went with him and what remains will never be the same."
Tucker has long been a passionate lover of horses. Jessie Rey, the horse who fathered Ginnin Jessie, died in 2019. He is included in one of the lines of Tucker's song, "Bring My Flowers Now," which imagines the singer and her horse riding together again one day in the afterlife.
As she mourns the loss of Ginnin Jessie, Tucker is taking comfort in a similar sentiment.
"His Daddy Jessie Rey left me when he was 31. So I think they're both together now and will be waiting on me," Tucker continues. "You're free now to run like the wind!"
Tucker wrote "Bring My Flowers Now" with Brandi Carlile, a collaborator who produced her 2019 While I'm Livin' album as well as its 2023 follow-up, Sweet Western Sound. Tucker previously told Sounds Like Nashville that she'd been wanting to write a song for her Jessie Rey since the horse's death, and her work with Carlile provided a perfect opportunity to memorialize him in a lyric.
"I said, ‘I want to write a song about him’ and I never could do it. And then when Brandi and I were finishing this, I had this idea when we started writing it in the studio that day," Tucker explained. "And the last day in the studio, right before we recorded it, Jessie Ray came in, he just showed up. One day, me and Jessie Ray, we’re going to ride again."
It's not the only time that Tucker's passions for music and horses have overlapped. During an early-June performance at the Grand Ole Opry, she made history by riding a horse onstage. It's believed to be the first time an Opry performer has made that particular kind of entrance.
