This paper analyses the funeral practice of horsemen and horse burials in the context of late Avar-period social identity. I propose a methodology, tested on six cemeteries, that examines the place of the horse as a central character in burials and agent in the burial ritual, as well as a grave good and faunal deposit. The analysis also demonstrates other instances of the horse’s occurrence in the archaeological record of this early medieval culture. This phenomenon is generally associated with the nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppes and can be seen as a marker of ethnicity. The recent investigations demonstrate the existence of social stratification, although not strictly vertical, which in turn can be connected to the system of values of the elite in early medieval Europe.