“A horse can lend its rider the speed and strength he or she lacks, but the rider who is wise remembers it is no more than a loan.”

“For the firat time saw the court as an animal with its own independent life and strengths. My father... our family... merely rode it for the time. Like a well-schooled horse, it colluded, allowing the rider to determine when to go, to stop. To choose direction and speed. Like a horse, it was more powerful than its rider and might choose at any time to disobey.”

“It's a lot like nuts and bolts - if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts! ”

“There is a lot of folklore about equestrian statues, especially the ones with riders on them. There is said to be a code in the number and placement of the horse's hooves: If one of the horse's hooves is in the air, the rider was wounded in battle; two legs in the air means that the rider was killed in battle; three legs in the air indicates that the rider got lost on the way to the battle; and four legs in the air means that the sculptor was very, very clever. Five legs in the air means that there's probably at least one other horse standing behind the horse you're looking at; and the rider lying on the ground with his horse lying on top of him with all four legs in the air means that the rider was either a very incompetent horseman or owned a very bad-tempered horse.”

“A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.”

“A little neglect may breed mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want a horse the rider was lost; for want of the rider the battle was lost.”