The Red Pony is a film score composed for Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...

's 1949 production which used John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

's screenplay based on his short stories The Red Pony

The Red Pony

The Red Pony is an episodic novella written by American writer John Steinbeck in 1933. The first three chapters were published in magazines from 1933–1936, and the full book was published in 1937 by Covici Friede. The stories in the book are tales of a boy named Jody Tiflin. The book has four...

. It was composed by Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 in 1948 at Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....

 and an LP was issued of the soundtrack.

The orchestral suite, originally arranged by Copland for the Houston Symphony Orchestra

Houston Symphony Orchestra

The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....

, lasts approximately 20–25 minutes and consists of six separate pieces:

• "Morning on the Ranch"
• "The Gift"
• "Dream March and Circus Music"
• "Walk to the Bunkhouse"
• "Grandfather's Story"
• "Happy Ending"

The premier of the suite in Houston was on October 30, 1948. In 1966, he transcribed selections from the orchestral suite for band.