The Horse

Perhaps the most iconic image of them all from this painting... Picasso's horse.

It takes centre stage and is therefore most prominent. It is prominent for this and several other reasons. We see that it has incurred substantial injuries; a huge gash to its abdomen, impaled by a spear. We see it in its final death throes, its mane on fire, as it succumbs to its wounds...releasing its scream and is about to die from them.

The parallels with the republican movement are obvious. Franco's Nationalist army were overwhealming the Republicans and who were reduced, in the main, to fighting as insurgents. The battle was all but lost. Much like the horse. It has lost the battle to the more powerful counterpart, the Nationalists... the bull. 

Though we can see the explicit injuries sustained here, it's the second bull in this picture that has dealt the death blow. This point is not explicit, because it's hidden, you have to reveal the bull to see this awful scene in its true context. This article is revealed and discussed in the Hidden Images section. 

The horse is also symbolic of the female and womanhood. Here too there are obvious parallels as the physically weaker woman is brought down by a stronger and more powerful male(s).

It's thought that the tail is, as in the case of the bull, symbolic and representative of smoke. I don't believe it is so here. Here, crudely, it is the horse violently evacuating its bowels, made to look like a tail. If it was meant to be a tail, it would be positioned differently and its overall shape would be different too, as it was originally in the early compositions of this painting.

And being so, it forms a link to the hidden image of Mussolini who's mouth is positioned right at the point. Hitler's hidden image of his eye is also at this point... I also hped and expected to find Franco's image referenced to this point, but couldn't find it.