Talk:Equine Phantoms/@comment-2800:2160:4400:54C:B040:CC7B:8A9C:833-20190811000403

The flogging of the horse until it dies may be a reference to a passage in Dostoyevsky's works, where images of peasants tormenting animals are a recurring theme. There's one in "Crime and Punishment" and another in "Brothers Karamazov" if I remember correctly.

Still... it's a pretty common theme so it could just as well be not.