Long ago, there was this horse...

On a dark night long ago, we're talking first century or earlier, a sad, unnamed horse was trying to find his family when he encountered a flock of animals. The horse asked the shadowy shapes, "Are you my family?" When the sun rose, the horse saw that he was standing amid a flock of wooly animals known as baa-baas.

The horse turned red and said, "I feel sheepish." And he went to a horse tavern to drown his sorrows.

This is a threefold origin story:

1) How the sheep got its name,

2) The joke, "Horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Why the long face?"

3) America's 1972 hit, "A Horse With No Name."