The study of polychrome slipware ceramics has long attracted scholarly attention due to their distinctive human and animal motifs. However, despite several decades of research on the origin and meaning of these designs, certain narrative scenes remain ambiguous and have not been satisfactorily interpreted. One particularly debated example is a shared scene depicted on three polychrome slipware vessels housed in the Sanandaj Museum, the Mostazafan Foundation Museum, and the Denver Art Museum. Previous interpretations of this scene, which rely primarily on historical sources, lack sufficient conceptual coherence and fail to provide definitive conclusions. Accordingly, reliance on historical studies alone does not adequately address the semantic complexity of these motifs, and the application of interdisciplinary approaches—particularly ethnography—offers the potential for a more precise and nuanced reading. The present study aims to re-examine this narrative scene, whose semantic and geographical roots are closely linked to the cultural sphere of Khorasan and Central Asia, by employing Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic approach in conjunction with ethnographic data. “The main research questions of this study are as follows: (1) What is the subject matter of the narrative scene depicted on the three ceramics under examination? (2) To what extent can ethnographic data and contemporary lived evidence reinforce and complement the interpretation of motifs on Samanid-period ceramics? This research has been conducted using a historical–analytical–comparative method, with data collected through library-based research. The findings indicate that the scene depicted on the three ceramics represents an ancient equestrian ritual and the game of buzkashi—an enduring practice rooted in the martial and cavalry traditions of Central Asian peoples, which has continued within this cultural sphere up to the present day. Such a conclusion demonstrates that the integration of ethnographic studies alongside historical analysis has the capacity to reveal deeper and concealed semantic layers in the motifs of Nishapur ceramics and provides an effective framework for their interpretation.