Late last year, when an unexpected visit to Verona, Italy, led to an equally unexpected discovery that horse meat was a specialty, my curious nature got the better of me, and I HAD to try it. So, for lunch, my 3 friends and I ventured into a local restaurant in search of horse meat. My friends had the lunch set menu with 2 courses, while I went for the a la carte both for the greater choice and the more manageable portion of food. What did I order? Something extreme enough for our server to ask at least twice whether I knew what it was that I ordered: horse meat tartare. Yup. I went for the most extreme of extremes. :-P
All 3 of my friends had the "bistecca," a thin piece of meat that was pan-fried, but all managed to be different. There was a raw (recommended by our server), medium, and well-done, although the raw was still slightly cooked. So, we managed to have horse meat cooked in every which way.The verdict was that horse meat was less chewy and less strong in flavour as compared to beef; and it was well-received by all. Now I understand why so many people enjoy it.
But, you may still be wondering what raw horse meat tastes like. Well, with tartare, the flavour comes mainly from the added sauces/ingredients rather than the meat itself as raw meat is essentially tasteless. Texturally, it was quite chewy since it's not cooked. Rest assured, nothing happened afterwards, although I was quite stuffed from all the uncooked meat that my poor stomach/intestines had to digest!

