An ancient bronze lock is on display in the collection of the Bolgar Museum-Reserve. It is horse-shaped. Such locks were not used for locking doors; they were used to lock the home storage containers — chests or coffers. In the Middle Ages, these locks were popular in Europe, Central Asia, and Iran, as well as in the Black Sea region countries.

Animal-shaped locks were usually made in Volga Bulgaria. It is a state that existed in the Middle Volga region and Kama River water-system area in the 10th-12th centuries. The Bulgars built several big cities that kept pace with European countries. The city of Bolgar was the capital.

The components of the locks were cast in separate moulds and then were soldered together. The locking mechanism was inside. Animal figures were often decorated with floral ornaments of there were notches on the head or paws.

In the Volga region such locks performed not only a practical function, closing the doors, but also served as a kind of amulet for their owner. In later periods these protective symbols were used by Chuvash people in the Volga Region. They decorated their houses in a such way. You can see the circular ornament on the lock from the exhibition of the Bolgar Museum-Reserve. The archaeologist and ethnographer Mikhail Khudyakov, who studied the culture of Volga Bulgaria, wrote about it:

Masters chose the horse figure for a lock for a reason. There was a cult of this animal in Volga Bulgaria. The horse is a sacred animal of the sun in the Finno-Ugric mythology. That is why it was often depicted with the solar tokens. It was believed that every morning the sun emerges on the sky like a horse on a plowland, and in the evening it goes underground.

Bulgarian artisans cast not only locks but also everyday and ceremonial dishes, lamps, mirrors, accessories for clothes, jewelry. Local artisans used gold, silver, as well as copper, and other non-ferrous metals in addition to bronze. Bulgars were skilled in casting, stamping, embossing, engraving, the art of filigree, and granulation.