[2] The song tells a story about the adventures of a man and his horse, a courageous, sun-colored, green-eyed stallion he nicknamed the "Tennessee Stud".
The song's timeline appears to take place during a period of over twenty years, beginning in 1825 and ending after the Great Flood of 1844.
After some trouble with his sweetheart's father and her outlaw brother, the man sends her a letter through his uncle and then rides away on his horse, the Tennessee Stud.
Together they have a series of adventures, including winning big in a horse race against a Spanish foal south of the border, outmaneuvering a band of Indians, and then escaping after a shootout with a gambler who insulted Tennessee.
He and his girl, on her "Tennessee Mare", ride off together across "the mountains and the valleys wide", and then after crossing the "Big Muddy", and "fording the flood", build a cabin and settle down; the man and his girl marry and have a baby while Stud sires a colt with the mare.