The Sun Horse of the Yukonsk Ikon also made me think of Pale Horse, a representation of Death, and Pale Horse brought to mind Pale Fire, the racehorse in a painting mentioned by Lucette (3.5):
There hung, she said, a steeplechase picture of 'Pale Fire with Tom Cox Up' above dear Cordula's and Tobak's bed, in the suite 'wangled in one minute flat' from them, and she wondered how it affected the Tobaks' love life during sea voyages.
Incidentally, Kon' Bled ("Pale Horse," 1904) is a poem by Bryusov and Kon' Blednyi ("Pale Horse," 1909), a novella by V. Ropshin (the penname of B. V. Savinkov).
Alexey Sklyarenko