Shamans of many cultures refer to all techniques used to enter altered states and thence alternative dimensions as their "horses" -- the meaning is close to "meditation," which (contrary to popular belief) is a "means of transportation," a method whereby you "get somewhere." Meditation is as valuable to the meditator as a horse is to a rider, but riding a horse "recreationally" vs. riding a horse because you have somewhere to go are different activities. Shamans don't ride horses recreationally.
A shamanic "horse" is the method of meditation -- whether rhythmic drumming, spinning, not-doing, ingesting entheogens, "dreaming," fasting, singing... techniques are numerous, different shamans use different ones, the same shaman uses different ones for different purposes... but they all are thought of as "horses" (or occasionally other beasts of burden, sometimes jaguars, sometimes dragons, sometimes cranes...) used to teleport the spirit (and occasionally the body too) to other realms. A "windhorse" is a fast one. (There's a frog in the rain forest in Peru... a "windhorse" for hunters. Takes one elsewhere instantly. The "elsewhere" is not different from where you were a moment before, but you are a hundredfold faster, your eyesight is a hundred times more acute, your sense of smell, touch, hearing... everything amplified. So this "windhorse" takes YOU out of your ordinary body and transports you into an extraordinary version of your body, without interfering with your spirit or the dimension you are in. Just one example, out of thousands.)
