I must admit I love this song in spite of it being played to death.

One thing that has always interested me about it: although it's a song of parting it seems to have three protagonists in it: The Rider, the Horse and the Narrator.

In the section where the Narrator says, "Run your claw along my gut. One last time" I get the impression that he is casting himself in the rôle of another Horse not another Rider.

It's an unusual gambit and, for me, raises the stakes psychologically turning this into more than a simple song of parting.

I'm sure there are many who will say I'm reading too much into this, especially given the author's own comments quoted above and I will happily acquiesce to the enduring mystery of it as it simply adds to the beauty of it all for me.

But pause for a moment maybe to consider MacCarthy's own (more recent) rewriting of this section of the lyric which I find neatly removes this little mystery. Here's the alt.

"When you ride into the night without a trace behind,
The silver spur, the stirrup foot where the road doesn't part and wind"
(link below)

For me it evokes ancient mythology, like the shape-shifting Pwca/ Púca/ Pwc/ Puck- bound over by their nature to be alone but drawn to humanity and love all the same.

A little too Pagan for Easter Sunday? Perhaps.

A beautiful song by any standards; full of depth and mystery and a lifelong friend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOY7FIB4Sx8