An article in yesterday’s New York Times explains that new fossils and artifacts found in northern Kazakhstan suggest horses were likely domesticated as early as 3500 B.C., or about one millennium sooner than previously thought. While this is apparently a landmark discovery, we’re not terribly surprised. As we’ll show in this edition of our weekly psychoanalysticle, Freudian Fridays, horses are a potent symbol for many things, and often serve as a vehicle of displacement for their riders. That is, a horse will often symbolize the traits a character wants to cultivate in her/himself (as we alluded to once before). But don’t take our word for it, check out these 6 Memorable Freudian Horses.

Black Beauty

“Feel the beauty” indeed! A young boy’s epic passage into adulthood involves taming this wild bucking beast. Farmboy ritual or psycho-sexual initiation into adult sexuality?

Seabiscuit

For a nation paralyzed by economic and social uncertainty, this story of perseverance and triumph over insurmountable odds symbolized strength and virility at a moment of national impotence.

Hidalgo

The American West may be tamed, but Frank Hopkins and Hidalgo can go overseas and prove what brash machismo American men and horses are made of.

Zorro’s Horse Tornado

Mysterious, elusive, yet always ready to spring to action wherever he’s needed, Tornado (and later Phantom) was like an equestrian clone of his masked master Zorro.

The Lone Ranger’s Silver

The Texan Zorro, Lone Ranger’s trusty steed Silver symbolized the order and justice of American democracy, spreading West with the gold rush to civilize new wilderness.

All the Pretty Horses’s Pretty Horses

Sorry fo the lousy fan-made trailer, but you get the point. Cormac McCarthy loves cowboy stories, especially when the cownboys start off as kids and end up full-grown, tight-lipped men. Here, taming a wild horse stands for both taming the wild West and taming teenage libido to become a responsible adult.

Any Freudian horses we missed? Let us know below.