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I don't think horses are common enough to be a common post-apocalyptic beast of burden. Besides, the apocalypse itself would probably cause food scarcity, and feeding the horse would most likely instead turn into eating the horse.
But yes, some elite factions m8ght use them for riding, but I suspect it would be very rare. I think The Postman, despite being an awful movie, has elements of realism, in that Holnists (or whatever the anti-Kevin faction was called) would usetheir power to gain access to horses. Or maybe their founder owned a horse ranch during the apocalypse and that's why they're powerful.
Being able to ride around on that much meat would be a demonstration of a stable society... but it really does depend on the apocalypse. Apocalypses that kill a large amount of people very quickly will have ample canned food for some time, after which wild animal populations would have rebounded, allowing hunting to be more viable.
And, yeah, you raise a good point... cavalry was as huge factor in military victories throughout history, even overlapping with small arms.
Canned food or not, to project power by riding horses requires that there are actual horses nearby to steal/buy/domesticate. I live in the sticks, and horses are rare even here. You can be as powerful as you want, but you would still not be able to will abhorse into existence.
Rare, but you could find one. The real question is if you could KEEP one, as valuable as it would be.
But some apocalypses are set 20-60 years out. Horse populations double every four years. You could eventually have a large wild population of horses that could be captured and traded through informal networks, plus stable areas that are using and breeding horses for their obvious benefits.
Edit: I could tell the Postman had good bones and could recommend the novel it's based on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman
Oh yeah, and it'd take many decades to breed more.
There's some around here, and if the apocalypse came I don't doubt people would be riding, but it'd be a one per few families thing.
Cattle would probably be the main beast of burden at first.