Kate Ezra (Art of the Dogon: Selections from the lester Wunderman Collection, New York, 1988, p. 40), writes of a similar equestrian figure: "Dogon figures depicting horses and riders reflect the prestige and power surrounding an animal that has been associated with royalty since horses were introduced to West Africa more than a thousand years ago...Dogon equestrian figures are most often identified as images of hogon, since in Dogon society horses are a luxury generally reserved for rich and powerfull people. Because horses occur in Dogon beliefs about the creation of the world, the hogon as rider is seen as a symbol of mythical personage. Thus, the equestrian hogon has been interpreted both as blacksmith, a mythical character who himself stands for Nommo, a being that represents order in the universe, and as Lebe, a primordial ancestor, whose cult, over which the hogon presides, is concerned with fertility and regeneration of the earth. The hogon as rider has also been seen as a representation of Dyon, another primordial ancestor who is said to have migrated on horseback to the Dogon area from Mande.
Throughout their oeuvre, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen emphasized the connections between Dogon art and cosmology, laying the basis for such far-reaching interpretations as these. However, none of the Dogon figures of horsemen similar to this has been documented in the field, and there is no compelling evidence to suggest that they refer either specific personages in village life or to characters in myth. While field research is necessary to identify the actual context in which these figures were used by the Dogon, it should also be kept in mind that the theme of the horse and rider is found throughout the art of Western Sudan. Even the gestures and attributes of the Dogon equestrian figures can be seen in the terracotta figures of the inland Niger Delta and in the wood sculpture of the neighboring Senufo and bamana. These parallels attest to to the wide appeal of this image and its adaptability to many different millieus. To understand Dogon equestrian figures it may be more usefull to look at the history of horsemen in the Western Sudan - as warriors, invaders, and emissaries of distant kingdoms. These factors, rather than the instances when horses occur in Dogon myths, may be responsible for the presence of equestrian imagery in Dogon art"