Wife
Sleep, my blossom,
The horse will not drink.Mother-in-law
Sleep, little rose,
The horse is weeping,
Its hooves are hurt,
Its mane is frozen (Act I, scene ii)
This is a very convoluted nursery rhyme (a sample above) being sung by the Wife and Mother-in-law. There are two viable directions to take in interpreting it. On one hand, since the families of the region engage in blood feuds and the bridegroom's father and brother are killed by a family they are feuding with, the nursery rhyme may be about the prevalence of feuds and fighting with the purpose of trying to foster a belief against dipping into the river of blood feuds. In this interpretation, the great horse that "will not drink" symbolizes the family and, simultaneously, each individual male of the family who, it is hoped, will stay out of the river of feuds.
On the other hand, since the central plot point is that the Wife's husband, Leonardo, is desperately in love with the Bride, it makes a good deal of sense that the horse symbolizes married men in the family, in this case, particularly Leonardo, while the river represents the possibility of taking what is not theirs, particularly, in this case, the Bride. If this is the correct interpretation, the resisting, weeping horse who "will not drink" fails, drinks (runs off with the Bridegroom's Bride), and will drink from his own river when he is overtaken by the Bridegroom.
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