Horse Shrine

It was years ago I first read Robert Holdstock's 'Mythago Wood', I've read it many times since and would honestly say it had, and continues to have, a powerful effect on how I experience the natural world, myth and legend. I know it's a work of fiction, though I found aspects of it resonate, and anyway, there's often truths to be found hidden in fiction. Reoccurring features throughout the books (there several books and short stories in the Mythago Wood series based on the mysterious Ryhope Wood), are the horse and horse shrines, the horse has always been a important and powerfully symbolic animal, important to human cultures all over the world, they have helped us so much, and in so many ways. From beasts of burden, wood and field labourers to revered, respected and feared war-machines, and everything in between. The horse has been our companion throughout our journey from way back when to now. The New Forest is famous, amongst other things, for its rugged ponies, 5000 of whom range free, living and dying almost wild as they have done for over 2000 years, and whose ancestors arrived here after the last ice age. As I say, they live and die wild in the forest, and I regularly find horse skulls and my mind wanders back into the mythological landscape of Mythago Wood. The horse shrines in the stories always feature skulls.