Horse symbolism is the study of the representation of the horse in mythology, religion, folklore, art, literature and psychoanalysis as a symbol, in its capacity to designate, to signify an abstract concept, beyond the physical reality of the quadruped animal. 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. They can be as good and Uranian as they are evil and Chthonian. Through the "centaur myth", expressed in most stories featuring a horse, the rider seeks to become one with his mount, combining animal instinct with human intelligence.
The horse's main function is as a vehicle, which is why it has become a shamanic and psychopomp animal, responsible for accompanying mankind on all its journeys. A loyal ally to the hero in epic tales, a tireless companion in cowboy adventures, the horse has become a symbol of war and political domination throughout history, a symbol of evil through its association with nightmares and demons, and a symbol of eroticism through the ambiguity of riding. The horse is familiar with the elements, especially water, from which the aquatic horse known in Celtic countries is derived. Air gave rise to the winged horse, known in Greece, China and Africa.
Literature, role-playing games and cinema have taken up these symbolic perceptions of the horse.
Origins and development of symbolic perception The horse may have occupied a key symbolic position from the very beginning, since it is the most represented animal in prehistoric art,. favoured since the XXXV millennium BC, well before its domestication.(fr) Patrice Brun, "Un animal sauvage privilégié depuis le XXXVe millénaire avant J.-C", in Le cheval, symbole de pouvoirs dans l'Europe préhistorique, Musée départemental de préhistoire d'Ile-de-France, 2001, 104 p. (), Exhibition from March 31 to November 12, 2001, Nemours. Representing the horse more than other equally (if not more) abundant animals was already a choice for prehistoric man. In the absence of concrete evidence to explain this choice, all interpretations remain possible, from the symbol of power. (according to the exhibition Le cheval, symbole de pouvoirs dans l'Europe préhistorique) to the shamanic animal (according to Jean Clottes' theory taken up by Marc-André Wagner). The horse also became a totemic ancestor, more or less deified..
The symbolism of the horse is complex and multiple. It is not clearly defined, since authors attribute a wide variety of meanings to the animal, with no one meaning standing out above the others.. In the stories associated with it, it has all kinds of roles and symbolisms, both beneficial and malefic:. 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 riderQuoted in . 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.), to the sun as well as the moon, to life as well as death, to the Chtonian as well as the Uranian world.. In its earliest symbolic perception, the horse was disquieting and chtonian, but later became associated with the sun as a result of its domestication.. It is most often a lunar animal linked to mother earth, water, sexuality, dreams, divination and the renewal of vegetation. Gilbert Durand notes, in his Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire, that the horse "is linked to the great natural clocks", and that all stories, whether of solar horses or chtonian steeds, have in common "the fear of the passage of time"..
Ancient studies suggest that the origin of the marvellous "magical powers" attributed to the horse is Indian..(fr) . Henri Gougaud notes that "since time immemorial, strong, deep, unalterable bonds have attached man to his mount". The horse is both the animal most dear to man and the only one that man can respect as his equal, so much so that it is seen as a gift from the gods capable of lifting man out of his primate condition and into the celestial spheres..
Domestication
The domestication of the horse, the feeling of freedom and the warlike power gained by cavaliers, means that this animal, a factor in major progress over the centuries, finds itself at the center of so many stories and is charged with multiple meanings. In myths, this domestication is often presented as an immediate and tacit understanding between rider and mount, sometimes with the help of the gods, as illustrated by Pegasus, Bucephalus and Grani. The historical reality, however, is one of a very long process.. In the cinema, this domestication is "an initiatory stage, a rite of passage between the wild state of childhood and the civilized state of adulthood".(fr) .
The centaur myth and the unconscious
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.(fr) Jean Lacroix, "Le mythe du centaure aux xve et xvie siècle en Italie", in Mythe et création, Université de Lille III, Presses Univ. Septentrion, 1994 (). The Dictionnaire des symboles asserts that all the rites, myths, poems and tales evoking the horse simply highlight this relationship between rider and mount, considered, in psychoanalytical terms, to represent that of the psychic and the mental: "if there is conflict between the two, the horse's race leads to madness and death, but if there is agreement, the race is triumphant". For riders, it's a matter of controlling instinct (the animal part) with the mind (the human part). Carl Gustav Jung notes an intimate relationship between riders and mounts.. In Métamorphoses de l'âme et ses symboles (Metamorphoses of the Soul and its Symbols), he argues that "the horse seems to represent the idea of man, with the instinctual sphere subject to him [...] legends attribute to it characters that are psychologically linked to the unconscious of man: [they] are endowed with clairvoyance [...] they guide the lost [...] they have mantic faculties [... they also see] ghosts".. For him, the horse seems to metaphorize the libido, the psychic energy emanating from the unconscious,Carl Gustav Jung, Métamorphoses et symboles de la libido, Éditions Montaigne, 1927, . and the animal part of the human being. 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.Emma Jung, et Marie-Louise von Franz, La légende du Graal, Paris, Albin Michel, 1988, .
In his The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim explains the attraction of many little girls to the toy horses they comb or dress, and later the continuity of this attraction through riding and caring for horses, by the need to compensate for emotional desires: "by controlling an animal as large and powerful as the horse, the young girl has the feeling of controlling the animality or masculine part in her". Freud, too, sees the horse as a "symbol of the unconscious psyche or the non-human psyche", the beast in man.
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.. Franchet d'Espèrey believes that this myth is recalled in all equestrian treatises from the 16th to the 20th century, reflecting man's mastery over nature..
Symbolism evolution Despite its disappearance from everyday life in favor of motorized vehicles, the horse remains "lurking in the deep collective subconscious". Olivier Domerc, former editor-in-chief of Culture Pub, argues that "unlike dogs and cats, the horse sells everything. Few animals have such a strong and universal image as a 'courier'".Olivier Domerc quoted in .
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..
The vehicle
The first symbolic perception of the horse is that of a "vehicle" directed by man's will (volition) or guide, enabling it to be carried more rapidly from one point to another: "the horse is not an animal like any other, it is the mount, the vehicle, the vessel, and its destiny is inseparable from that of man". Gilbert Durand speaks of "a violent vehicle, a steed whose strides surpass human possibilities".. In Métamorphoses de l'âme et ses symboles, Carl Gustav Jung speaks of the horse as "one of the most fundamental archetypes of mythologies, close to the symbolism of the tree of life". Like the tree of life, the horse connects all levels of the cosmos: the earthly plane where it runs, the subterranean plane with which it is familiar, and the celestial plane.. It is "dynamism and vehicle; it carries towards a goal like an instinct, but like instincts it is subject to panic".. In this sense, the horse motif is a fitting symbol for the Self, as it represents a meeting of antithetical and contradictory forces, conscious and unconscious, and the relationship linking them (just as an indefinable relationship unites rider and mount).(fr) Carl Gustav Jung, "Aïon: Études sur la phénoménologie du Soi", in La réalité de l'âme, t. 2: Manifestations de l'inconscient, Paris, Le Livre de poche, 2007 (), p. 680. This perception derives directly from the physical qualities of mobility.Andrén, Anders; Jennbert, Kristina; Raudvere, Catharina (2007). Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: origins, changes, and interactions: an international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004. Vägar till Midgård. Vol. 8. Nordic Academic Press. p. 130-134. It transcends known space, since riding is a "transgression of psychic or metaphysical limits":. 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. The horse can also play the role of captor.. Donald Woods Winnicott develops the importance of "carrying", which "enables liberation from physical and psychic constraints", and refers to sensations of early childhood.Donald Winnicott, quoted in .
In a 2026 study, Olzhas Ospanov and Alan Vincelette interpret the suspended V-gallop pose of a Greco-Bactrian gilt-bronze sculpture known as the “Heavenly Horse” as a visual metaphor for passage between earthly and celestial realms. They compare this mediating role with Han Chinese and Indo-Iranian traditions, including the Aśvamedha, in which the royal horse linked sovereignty with cosmic order.
Shamanism
The horse is the animal of shamanism and initiation rituals, an association it owes to its instinct, its clairvoyance, its psychoanalytical perception as the animal and intuitive part of man that illuminates reason, and its knowledge of the Other World.. 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.