File:Roman horse and rider brooch (FindID 195363).jpg

English: Enamelled copper alloy Horse and Rider brooch. The brooch is flat and shows a horse and rider going right. A male rider sits on the back of the horse and is shown leaning slightly backwards. He has swept back straight hair shown by a series of grooves. The ear, nose and eye are clearly defined by mouldings and recesses. The males right arm is angled forward and there is a short, vertical object in his hand, perhaps a staff or a sword. There is a large, roughly oval cell either side of the hand, and a small cell above. All three cells contain red enamel. The horse is shown galloping. The front right leg is angled backwards and the rear right leg is forwards. The head is incomplete, however the horses mane is shown in a similar fashion to that of the rider. The main body of the rider is decorated with five cells, one of which contains red enamel. The other cells are empty. The tail of the horse is depicted by a series of narrow grooves. There foot of the rider is shown by a small extension below the horse.

On the reverse there is a double lug for a hinged pin on the rear of the horse, and a catchplate at the nose end. Around the axis bar between the lugs is a fragment of a copper alloy spring that has three turns to it.

Bayley and Butcher (2004, 175) note that the quality of this design of brooch is variable (see Hattatt 2000, 359; fig. 218). They state that there are strong indications of a religious connection with this brooch type, with significant quantities being found at temple sites (ibid., 175-176). Catherine Johns (1996, 173-174) suggests that these brooches may depict a Romano-Celtic rider god (perhaps Mars conflated with a local deity), and may have been bought from shrines as the Roman equivalent of medieval pilgrim badges.