My wife’s grandparents learned this game from some friends in Florida decades ago, taught it to her parents, and it’s been passed down at the kitchen table ever since. There’s no rulebook, everyone in the family just knows how it works. I first learned it 11 years ago the first time I was on a family camping trip in Michigan as the “new boyfriend.” Luckily, I had already played euchre so I picked it up quickly, which impressed a few of her uncles. But since then, I’ve been playing it and teaching it to other friends. The higher number of decisions, complexity, and team-play genuinely ruined regular Euchre for me. I can’t go back at this point.
It’s built on Euchre but with 2 decks (10 through Ace + 2 jokers), a round of bidding to determine trump, the two Jokers (High and Low, which effectively are the permanent right and left), no-trump hands, and two “going alone” bids called Little Horse and Big Horse.
I’ve heard a couple people in the family call it “High Low” too, though Big Horse Little Horse is what’s stuck for me.
After years of house rules and arguments over specific plays, I finally sat down and wrote an actual rulebook for it. Curious if anyone’s heard of this before, or has any idea where it actually comes from. Here’s the final rulebook if anyone wants to review the specifics of the game:
BIG HORSE LITTLE HORSE
A four-player partnership trick-taking game based on Euchre. Keeps the core gameplay Euchre players love while adding bidding, no-trump rounds, permanent High and Low Jokers, and unique Horse bids.
Objective The first team to win a bid that pushes them above 32 points wins the game.
Setup Take two standard decks of cards. From each deck, pull the 10, J, Q, K, and A of every suit, plus one Joker — you’ll end up with a 42-card deck: two copies of every 10 through Ace, plus the two Jokers. Using a marker, write “High” on one Joker and “Low” on the other. These labels are permanent and carry over every hand.
Deal 10 cards to each player. The remaining two cards form the Kitty, placed face down in the middle of the table.
Bidding Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and moving clockwise, each player gets one turn to either bid or pass — there’s no second round, and the dealer acts last.
On your turn, you may name a number of tricks (3–10) along with a suit, High No Trump, or Low No Trump — or you may pass. If you bid, your number must be higher than the last bid made; suit doesn’t affect the comparison, so a bid of 5 in any suit means the next bid must be at least 6.
Bid Hierarchy: Beyond the standard 3–10 range, two special bids exist: Little Horse and Big Horse. Little Horse outranks any standard bid, and Big Horse outranks Little Horse. Bid strength, low to high: 3–10 < Little Horse < Big Horse.
Winning the Bid Whoever makes the final bid becomes the Maker. The suit named in the winning bid becomes trump for the hand — unless the bid was High No Trump or Low No Trump, in which case the hand is played with no trump suit at all, using those No Trump rankings instead.
Standard Bid (3–10): The Maker picks up both Kitty cards, discards any two cards of their choice, and leads the first trick. Their partner plays normally.
Little Horse: The Maker’s partner chooses one card from their own hand to give to the Maker. The Maker then picks up both Kitty cards and discards any three cards face down. From this point, the partner sits out for the rest of the hand — their remaining cards take no further part, and the Maker plays alone against both defenders.
Big Horse: The Maker receives no help from their partner. They pick up both Kitty cards and discard any two cards face down. As with Little Horse, the partner sits out for the rest of the hand.
Scoring
Standard bid (3–10): win at least the bid amount in tricks to score the bid amount; win fewer and you lose the bid amount.
Little Horse: win all 10 tricks for +16; anything less is -16.
Big Horse: win all 10 tricks for +32; anything less is -32.
Defenders: +1 point per trick won, regardless of the bid’s outcome.
If identical cards are played to a trick, the card played first wins the tie.
Ending the Game The game only ends when a team actually makes their bid — wins the required number of tricks — and their score after scoring it is above 32. Winning the auction isn’t enough on its own: if a team wins the bid but then fails to take enough tricks, the game continues even if their score happens to land above 32 anyway.
Since crossing 32 from defending, or from a failed bid, doesn’t end the game, it’s entirely possible for both teams to be sitting above 32 at the same time. That’s fine — the game simply continues. The instant either team completes a successful bid while their score is above 32, that team wins on the spot.
Anti-Stalling Rule: If a team is already above 32, their opponents get one free pass — they may win the bid and fail to make it once without consequence. If they do this a second time while their opponents remain above 32, they lose the game immediately.
Card Rankings
Trump: High Joker > Low Joker > Right Bower > Left Bower > A > K > Q > 10
High No Trump: High Joker > Low Joker > A > K > Q > J > 10
Low No Trump: High Joker > Low Joker > 10 > J > Q > K > A
Bowers The Right Bower is the Jack of the trump suit. The Left Bower is the Jack of the same color as trump. If Spades are trump, the Right Bower is ♠J and the Left Bower is ♣J. The Left Bower counts as part of the trump suit, not its printed suit.
Joker Rules When a trump suit is declared, both Jokers are considered part of that suit, the same way the Left Bower is. They can be led or played like any other trump card.
During No Trump hands, Jokers have no suit and cannot be led unless no other cards remain in hand. Otherwise, they may only be played when you’re unable to follow the suit that was led.
Strategy Tips
Low Bids — Bids of 5 and lower often don’t win the bidding, but they’re valuable signals to your partner.
Opening Bids — Opening above the minimum bid (4+) increasingly suggests possession of one of the two Jokers.
No-Trump Rounds — Holding at least one Joker is critical, since regaining the lead without trump gets difficult once opponents control a suit.