Channa

While Yasodhara is pregnant the Buddha makes friends with Channa, the stablehand.
Horse people are considered as being from a lowly strata, but the are also considered earthy and fun.

During his rides with Channa the Buddha, saw the diseased, the old, and the dead.  When he saw an old man the Buddha remarked "Is this a type of monkey I haven't seen before?"  He also saw a monk in orange robes who exuded equanimity and metta.

Channa took the Buddha into "Unclean" areas.  Each ride with the Buddha was on his favorite horse Khantaka.  Horses claim special places in the human imagination.

Khantaka his horse dies at the river but is reborn as a human being that studies with Siddhartha.