[sentient]

Ruohtta, also known as Rota, was the Sami demon of pestilence and evil.
Ruohtta resided in a realm named Rotaimo, and rode across the land with a horse, spreading pestilence and death to the people. The Sami would keep the demon away by either pray to their sky deity Radien or by sacrificing a horse. Actually, this was not a sacrifice to the demon, but rather a sacred rite, which would transfer the disease from the human to the dead horse.

Rota (Ruto), the demon of death and disease, riding to the realm of death Reuterskiöld and other earlier scholars propose that the prototype for Rota was Odin, who also is connected with the land of the dead.

https://www.thuleia.com/rota.jpg

Above pic from Shaman´s drum symbols in Scandinavia:
https://www.thuleia.com/shamandrum.html

Needless to say the Horse isn’t one of the “power animals” or animal-spirit-helpers at least for the Norwegian Saami.…