Such amulets are found in the lands once inhabited by proto-Bulgarians, or in areas that were under their rule.

Whether they come from Thracian times, brought along by either Slavs or proto-Bulgarians, it is difficult to tell. Chiefly because it is not known now if those called “Thracians” by outsiders were not the people who called themselves “Bulgarians”.
 
 There are grounds to believe that this type of amulet was worn as a mark of ethnic affiliation.... It was widely used until around the 10th century.
 
 It was most probably a symbol of faith in the Supreme Power, which seems to have taken for the ancient Bulgarian the physical form of a strange centaur. You can remember at this point the Horseman of Madara and the plentitude of votive tablets…

The Bulgarian!

The man riding at full speed. The one on horseback. The rider. The observer of things happening.
He had his own Measure. At some point his head was replaced by a cross. It meant supreme power. It was found everywhere.
 
Put on one’s neck it showed to the other person - I am not alone, my God is with me and I am his. God is a witness of our meeting and of what is happening.
“With God I’m going ahead” - our ancestors used to say when putting this amulet on their necks.
 
 (The ancient Bulgarian knew: he had the support and judgment of the Supreme Power. The foreigner knew: the Bulgarian he confronted went along with his own God; the one of his own people could see – he was faced with his own kin.)
 
 A horse with a tender neck and tender air. With a hinted smile. A benevolent force racing across the land of Bulgarians softly and swiftly, like wind. At all times, in all places!
 
"The token of Bulgarians" has been found in some twenty varieties, all of them executed in bronze and in an amulet form.
Posted here are representations of the Token published by Zhivko Aladjov in his report on "Proto-Bulgarian Amulets from Macedonia and Serbia" released in the No 1 1999 issue of the Starini  journal of Balkan archeology. However, the amulet has turned up in all places of Bulgarian settlements or garrisons.