A conquering king would let a prize horse wander freely to graze, accompanied by a band of young warriors. Bellerophon rode on the winged Pegasus, Phaethon drove his father's chariot of the sun with his horses and Hippolytos raced off the roadside to his death because he could not control his horses. When the Buddha took up the ascetic path, he dismissed his charioteer and had no further use for his horse, Kanthaka. This separation from his master broke the horse's heart and he died of grief. Kanthaka is remembered in Buddhist statuary as a little horse figure of faithfulness near the great seated Buddha.
Usual symbolism attaches the horse to the earth and sea.
When this ferocious strength is perceived in a woman, the horse is demonized into the witches' steed, the nightmare, the panicky madness of a runaway. Although horses may be work-horses and farmhorses pulling their loads for civilization, dream horses still carry heroes on their backs, both in the images of dreams and in the invisible myths that accompany these images. Even driving across the lawn and golf course, we're still riding horses. That horse power still brings sudden death on roads and highways to so many young people at the verge of bursting into full life. For the steed who can so strongly carry life leads that same life to its funeral in the solemn procession of the riderless horse.