Thinking about the relationship between Poor Old Horse and the idea of the exploited worker (I will upload the whole song eventually because apparently this version isn't online anywhere, but the last verse goes: and the man with the whip said... Get up Dobbin, your job's not done//So the man with the whip got on old Dobbin's back//his cruel old whip went crack crack crack//with a swish of his mane and a jingle of his bell//Poor old Dobbin rode him straight to hell, and the devil said... "Good work Dobbin, your job's all done")
And I realised the missing leg of "What is it about?" Is the niþstang - the mast with a severed horse's head atop it, raised to curse and accuse someone who has done you wrong.
On one hand, my dead horses are beautiful and dancing, bringing light and love and the two-step trot into places that are hurried grey and reminding us that we too are living animals... And on the other they are accusing the city of riding us to death and stripping our bones for glue.