while it is funny that the bailongma chose to be a horse in situations that could really have benefitted from having a dragon, i don't think he gets enough credit for how much shit they avoided just by having him instead of a normal horse. can you imagine trying to fight off demons meanwhile the whole time your horse has laminitis. oh no tang seng has been captured again but also our horse is colicing which means he's either having a little tummy ache or 5 minutes away from death. kept his head tied up too long while you were trying to keep your sifu from being steamed alive, now the horse has pneumonia. trying to keep a normal horse alive could have accounted for all 81 trials and tribulations tbh. when sun wukong said "a normal horse could never survive this journey" he was so real for that.