Lady horses (Symbol)
Female horses are the central focus of the poem, and a prominent symbol of power. They are described as dangerous, swaggering, huge, and making winning look effortless. The speaker marvels at how these horses can so easily embody the type of untamed power and triumph that she wants for herself. By the end of the poem, the speaker is imagining her body containing a horse's heart, aspects of her body and the horses' bodies fusing into one.
Beating heart (Symbol)
Within the poem's broader imagery of bodies, the image of a beating heart becomes crucial to the poem. The heart is what seems most alive, what keeps the body going, running, and winning. It comes to symbolize the speaker's determination and drive to succeed. She even endows the heart with thought in the last two lines, saying it is the heart (not the brain) that knows it will win, implying that the heart is where her determination stems from.
