I always associated this song with my best friend whom I was in love with for much of my childhood/teen years. To me, the person who know him best (Don't I know you better than the rest?), he was unique and incredibly talented. But he tried so hard to fit in with people he had little in common with; he essentially "deceived" them (All deception, all deception from you). Of all my friends I believed he was the one with the brightest future, and no matter how much he tried to blend in, he was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us (Any way you run, you run before us). He never believed in himself, but I always did (You know you're gold, you don't gotta worry none).
We were all horses - we were all the same - and he was a zebra - unique, not "domesticated" as we were - who was trying to disguise himself as a horse - or as domesticated, someone who had been broken in by society (Black and white horse, arching among us).