Horse symbolism

The horse has been associated with numerous roles and magical gifts throughout the ages and in all regions of the world where human populations have come into contact with it, making it the most symbolically charged animal, along with the snake.

Mythical and legendary horses often possess marvellous powers, such as the ability to speak, cross waters, travel to the Other World, the underworld and heaven, or carry an infinite number of people on their backs.

[nb 1][5] In the stories associated with it, it has all kinds of roles and symbolisms, both beneficial and malefic:[6] a dynamic, impulsive mount, it is associated with all the points of the compass, with each of the four elements, with maternal figures (Carl Gustav Jung sees the horse as one of the archetypes of the mother, because it carries its rider[7] just as the mother carries her child, "In contrast, Sigmund Freud notes a case in which the horse is the image of the castrating father[8]), to the sun as well as the moon, to life as well as death, to the Chtonian as well as the Uranian world.

[18] The "centaur myth" refers to "the perfect coupling between instinct and reason, between intelligence and brute force", as symbolized by the image of a human bust attached to a horse's body, rump and limbs.

[21] According to Marie-Louise von Franz, the horse represents animal, instinctual psychic energy, considered in its purest essence and often linked to the shadow, notably in Le Cycle du Graal.

[25] According to Cadre Noir equestrian Patrice Franchet d'Espèrey, the myth of the centaur contains "everything related to the horse in the imagination", the rider's quest being to achieve perfect harmony with his mount, to "become one" with it.

Patrice Franchet d'Espèrey points out that, at the beginning of the 21st century, equestrianism has made the horse the embodiment of journeys into the great outdoors, of self-mastery, of mastery of others and of communication with nature.

[34] It transcends known space, since riding is a "transgression of psychic or metaphysical limits":[35] the horse enables us to cross the gates of hell as well as the boundaries of heaven, the disciple attains knowledge on his back, and many beliefs in metempsychosis relate adventures on horseback prior to reincarnation.

[38] This could be the horse's earliest and most ancient function, possibly dating back to prehistoric times, according to Jean Clottes' controversial theory that a number of cave paintings depict shamanic visions.

[1] According to Mircea Eliade, in his trance, which aims to step outside himself and cross the limits of the known world, the shaman obtains the help of an animal-spirit and uses several objects, such as the horse-stick and the drum (usually stretched out in horsehide), which refer to the real animal.

The Kyrgyz legend of Tchal-Kouyrouk is more broadly linked to this, as the hero Töshtük must rely on the powers of his mount, which speaks and understands human language, to guide him through a subterranean universe to retrieve his soul.

He also notes, thanks to a few etymological clues, that the generalization of the broom (after the 13th century) as a means of transport for witches probably stems from the previous figure, and originally from the shamanic horse, with which it retains as a link only its straw, reminiscent of the animal's tail.

[64] The horse's role as "psychopomp", the animal responsible for carrying the souls of the deceased between earth and heaven, is attested to in many civilizations, notably by the Greeks and Etruscans, where it was part of mortuary statuary,[65] but also by the Germans and Central Asians.

[72] The horse is buried, saddled and bridled, alongside its master, to fulfill this psychopomp role in the Altai region,[41] among the Avars, Lombards, Sarmatians, Huns,[73] Scythians, Germans[68] and many primitive Asian civilizations, where this burial is preceded by a ritual sacrifice.

[88] According to Éric Baratay and Marc-André Wagner, during the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church passed off the horse as a diabolical animal, in order to combat the survival of pagan traditions (Celtic and Germanic in particular) that made it sacred.

[96] This association is no longer limited to Europe with the colonization of the Americas, since the black horse forced to build a church featured in many Quebec folklore stories is in fact the Devil in disguise.

[98] The drac, a legendary creature linked to the Devil, dragons and water, takes the form of a black horse to tempt a marquis from the Basse Auvergne region to ride him, then nearly drowns him in a pond, according to a local legend.

[117] Western kings often commissioned their own equestrian statue or portrait: the horse's back acted as a throne, enhancing their qualities of goodness, majesty and sovereign power.

This is the case in the novels of Chrétien de Troyes:[122] Erec, for example, chooses a horse and a sword, "following a creative impulse that leads him towards his own realization", and thus begins his initiatory quest for power and purity.

[126] Henri Gouraud says that "a cowboy without his mount is nothing but a centaur broken in two, a soul separated from a body, a being without deep existence, too alone, too clumsy to give our unconscious the speech nourished by an age-old dream.

[130] In the past, this sacrifice gave legitimacy to a king: for example, the Christian Håkon I of Norway had to comply with the pagan ritual by consuming the liver of a sacrificed horse in order to guarantee the prosperity of his people, and to be accepted by them.

[159] Marlene Baum traces the first water-horse association back to the Scandinavian peoples of the Baltic and North Seas, who also used kenning as "wave horse" to designate the longest Viking boats.

The Persians performed this type of sacrifice in honor of the goddess Anahita, and the Russians drowned a stolen horse in the river Oka, as a seasonal offering to the "Great Father", the water genie.

The Kwore, Bambara initiates, know a ritual for calling down rain, in which they ride a wooden horse symbolizing the winged mounts of their genies fighting against those who would prevent regenerative water from falling from the sky.

[199] However, cursed horses of a cold, empty, pale white color, "lunar",[200] "nocturnal, livid like mists, ghosts, suars",[201] are known from folklore, such as the blanque mare and the Schimmel Reiter.

[212] One piece of evidence lies in the exhumation of Scythian horses wearing reindeer antler masks, another in Kazakh and Siberian drawings blending equine features with those of deer.

In addition to the aforementioned link to the liquid element, the reason for this seems to be that the horse, an animal familiar to humans, is also the most appropriate for travelling to fairytale worlds and playing the elf's characteristic tricks, such as throwing a rider into a pool of mud, a river or a fountain.

Paul Sébillot reports popular beliefs about several horse sprites: the Bayard in Normandy, the Mourioche in Upper Brittany, Maître Jean, the Bugul Noz and the white mare of Bruz.

[217] Elficologist Pierre Dubois cites numerous household elves, one of whose roles is to look after the stables, and other, wilder ones, who visit the same places at night, leaving visible traces of their passage, for example by braiding the horses' manes, a trick known as fairy -lock.

[48] One of Western Europe's best-known fabulous horses, Bayard, is a fairy-horse born of a dragon and a snake on a volcanic island, as well as an animal linked to earth and fire, embodying telluric energy and vigor.