I think your question is slightly confused - the horse
itself, as an inanimate object, does not have any feelings, but it definitely does
produce feelings of anxiety in us as readers and in the other characters in this
masterful short story. Think about the description of Paul as he rides on his rocking
horse, looking for "luck":
When the two girls were playing dolls in the
nursery, he would sit on his big rocking horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy
that made the little girls peer at him uneasily. Wildly the horse careered, the waving
dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes had a strage glare in them. The little girls dared
not speak to him.
Such
descriptions make us anxious for Paul because of the effect that riding on his rocking
horse is having on him. Notice how this anxiety continues to be conveyed, with the
concern of other characters at his state:
He would speak to nobody when he was in full
tilt. His mother watched him with an anxious expressin on her
face.
Even his self-absorbed
and greedy mother is concerned at his intensity, though she can't understand what is
happening. However, it is the last ride that Paul takes on his rocking horse that is by
far the most disturbing:
"It's Malabar!" he screamed in a powerful,
strange voice. "It's
Malabar!"
His eyes blazed at her for one strange and
seneless second, as he ceased urging his wooden horse. Then he fell with a crash to the
ground, and she, all her tormented motherhood flooding upon her, rushed to gather him
up.
The description of the
sound of his voice and the way his eyes "blazed" suggests that somehow Paul is being
possessed by some kind of spirit that comes from the horse, and obviously causes his
mother to wonder and panic over what has happened.
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