Songfacts®:

• Nashville songwriter Liz Hengber originally wrote this song's lyrics for a friend who was dying of cancer. She couldn't complete it, so she called in Tommy Lee James who helped her finish off the tune.
• When Reba McEntire first heard this song she thought of her dying father. Not long after she recorded "Just Like Them Horses," on October 23, 2014, Clark McEntire passed away of cancer. Reba sung the ballad at his funeral.
• Liz Hengber penned several of Reba McEntire's early singles including her first hit in 1991 "For My Broken Heart." Other Top Five country hits she wrote for Reba in the 1990s include "It's Your Call," "And Still" and "Forever Love."
• Reba McEntire finds this difficult to sing. "When I recorded it I had to really concentrate on the lyrics. It was a very emotional song," she confessed to Radio.com. "It was for Mama and Daddy. It was for her letting Daddy go. He had been sick for three or four years and it was time."
  
  "He was suffering and if he had known where he was and what was really going on, if he could have told us, he wouldn't have wanted that kind of a life," McEntire continued. "I think he pretty much decided when he wanted to go and God said, 'OK come on boy, let's go home.'"
• Filmed in black and white, the video pays tribute to Reba McEntire's father. The clip was co-directed by the songstress and shot on the McEntires' ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma. "I got the idea for the video one day and knew it was going to be the most meaningful heartfelt video I'd ever do," McEntire said. "We shot the entire video in Chockie, Oklahoma on the McEntire homeplace. Those old hills mean a lot to me. I lived there 21 years and they still call me back time after time."
  
  McEntire's mother, Jacqueline, makes an appearance in the visual. "Mama had to be in the video. She was and still is the glue to our family," the country star explained. "Without a doubt, the ranch wouldn't be what it is today without her. She was the partner, bookkeeper, No. 1 hired hand, cook, my best friend and, as I said, the glue. So many times, things could have gone south, but she held us all together."