Do you find your yard spooky at night?

[sarahann1]

Yep, well, sometimes....much less so on the yard I'm at now, unless it's the old farm part in which case I get freaked out there day or night, the new part only if I let my imagination run away.

My previous yard, all the time! I hated being on my own there at night. On one occasion I was left to lock up, thankfully it was only the once, switching all the lights off was awful. I gave myself proper heebie geebies, so much so I drove my car over to the last light switch, close as I could get it, left the door open and engine running while I switched it off, sped out the yard fast as I could go! Even thinking about it now is giving me the heebies again....*shudders*.

 

[atropa]

Yes, some nights if I'm the last one on the yard my imagination really runs away on me and I can get quite freaked out, despite the fact our YOs live on site..it's just thinking about what or who could be lurking out in the fields

 

[Antw23uk]

I'm not at my yard at night. Once it's dark I can't see anything and I'm bound to step in badger crap walking back up to the house!

 

[Llanali]

No, but again, a few dogs and I'm ok.

My biggest concern, is that I have a real phobia of frogs, and I'm truly terrified of stepping on one this time of year!

 

[Anna*]

Yep, well, sometimes....much less so on the yard I'm at now, unless it's the old farm part in which case I get freaked out there day or night, the new part only if I let my imagination run away.

My previous yard, all the time! I hated being on my own there at night. On one occasion I was left to lock up, thankfully it was only the once, switching all the lights off was awful. I gave myself proper heebie geebies, so much so I drove my car over to the last light switch, close as I could get it, left the door open and engine running while I switched it off, sped out the yard fast as I could go! Even thinking about it now is giving me the heebies again....*shudders*.

I do this EVERY night at my yard! I hear noises everywhere an always imagine the worst!!!

 

[jimbojones]

I have quite an active imagination and have seen way too many horror stories - I'm actually more comfortable walking through town at night on my own that at a secluded yard. If my mind starts going it can get a bit carried away - ghosts and werewolves etc and then expect the bogeyman to jump out at me! I know how completely ridiculous it is but I can't help it! I do the same sometimes when out walking the dog late at night - I don't have any faith that she'd try and save me!!!

 

[Patchworkpony]

Hurray - I'm not the only one with a vivid imagination then!

 

[GirlFriday]

I've only (long term) been on one yard where really late nights were really an option, the rest all had a kick-out time as there were people living on-site. That one though had all things wrong with it
- partially abandoned (think stabling for maybe 40 or so and only 6 horses in)
- nearest house well beyond shouting distance and anyway with very elderly deaf (& crazy) occupants
- at the end of a dead end lane leading into woods with one or two 'odd' cars parked up there every so often
- ...

I used to jump there alone, turn horse out, put tack away in 'cages' in upstairs of partially disused barns (I once found what used to be an indoor school being used for storage of some pretty random stuff), run to car and then drive to gate and do it up from the outside with two '9's already dialled on my phone (not that there was reliable reception)!

 

[Mike007]

Before my knees packed up ,i used to go hill walking over Box hill in surrey ,usually at midnight. What is the most dangerous thing in these woods, Oh yes, that would be me,( waves ). Sure wouldnt want to meet me !

 

[Starzaan]

The only bit I get jumpy about is crossing the lane from my garden to the yard. I have often met people coming back from the pub on that lane when I go out to do lates.
Once I'm on the yard though I'm absolutely fine, and am always within shouting distance of either my boyfriend or the neighbours.

 

[HashRouge]

I used to get very spooked when I was a teenager. From the age of 12 I was going up to the yard from 6am before school and was almost always the first one there, which meant arriving to find the yard in pitch blackness and having to run round turning all the lights on (none of which gave off much light!). It was particularly scary round by the Cheshire barn, as I always used to imagine someone/ something lurking behind the hay bales! Then there was a little hayloft above the tackroom in my stable, which used to scare me silly when it was dark and there was no-one else around. That was a very old yard though (the farmhouse had a 1604 date stone and the oldest part of the stables was 1632) and there were lots of dark corners and haylofts for things to hide in. Plus I was quite young! I'm not really bothered now, I used to really like going to my old yard in the dark and being up at the fields. The stars were amazing.

 

[Patchworkpony]

I feel sad that I'm now so wary of going out in the dark when years ago I used to love the peace and stillness of it all. I'm quite sure my feeling are due to world we live in - now always waiting for another human being to do us harm. Where have those naïve happy days of my childhood gone when there were communities, kind neighbours and considerate drivers respecting horses being on the roads? Oh I know - gone for ever!!!!

 

[humblepie]

Current yard fine. Previous yard - hated having to lock or unlock gate in dark. So obvious no one else around. Years ago at another yard was there late on my own and had seen someone walking down the lane who just didn't look right - not the right clothes for walking, etc - then I heard dogs at the farm house barking even though knew no one was in. There had been some problems at the country park nearby so I rang the police and asked if they had a car that could do a drive by. Just as I was leaving passed police dog car turning up. Whoops just wanted a presence but glad they were concerned.

 

[milliepops]

Always been happy at my yards, especially when there are horses around Always feel safe with a horse at hand! Current yard is out in the sticks but with some houses around, but my stables are in an enclosed barn which is so old, it has a real sense of history around it. Really peaceful.

I've always had to do stuff in the dark - last few years have involved a lot of rehab work over the winter which has meant hacking in woods in the pitch black with a headtorch... all OK. I am aware that I need to keep my confidence up though as I do have a slightly overkeen imagination, so no horror films set in woodland etc :eek3:

 

[Patchworkpony]

so no horror films set in woodland etc :eek3:

So no Blair Witch Project then!

 

[turkana]

I'm often at the yard on my own in the dark, for some reason I'm not bothered in the morings but I do find the nights quite creepy (my subconcious must think that axe mrders like their lie ins!)
I have forced my dog to come with me whilst on colic watch late at night.
My pet hate is standing in the field, the giving the horses their tea in the pitch black - all is quiet until the ******* suddenly spin around & gallup off snorting into the darkness, leaving me standing there alone!

 

[Annagain]

The yard itself is fine as are the fields surrounding them but I hate having to go to the bottom fields in the dark. There's a steep, grass and stone track going down to them that gets very slippery so just on a practical level, I'm always terrified I'm going to slip and be stuck there as I'm often the last one up in the evenings to check on the boys. Add to that the woods on one side of the track with lots of wild animals that make all sorts of noise and you can talk yourself into believing every sound is a mad axe murderer! It doesn't help that a few of the YO's friends shoot rabbits in the woods so at dusk you occasionally hear a gunshot or spot a gun wielding man through the trees!

The boys usually come up from the bottom when the clocks go back, but there's always that few weeks before when it's a mad rush to get there before dark and I usually fail.

 

[Sarah_K]

I read an article that said when night comes the human brain automatically becomes more nervous and on high alert - something to do with our ancient ancestors.

Yep, posted something similar on a different forum. Effectively your brain fills in the details you can't see/hear/feel to give you the best chance of survival. For example: you and your caveman chums are walking through a dark forest at night. You see something ahead- is it a funny shaped tree or a caveman eating bear? Your brain fills in the bear details as a funny shaped tree isn't going to hurt you but a bear will, especially one that prowling under the cover of trees to catch a caveman for dinner! You all dash back to the campfire with a tale of escaping a caveman eating bear. It also means that you survived to pass on your "fearfulness" of strange shaped objects in the forest to your offspring and they to their offspring and so on. We don't have any predators in the UK (apart from other humans occasionally) but that fear and ability to make bears out of funny shaped trees is still there.

No, but again, a few dogs and I'm ok.

My biggest concern, is that I have a real phobia of frogs, and I'm truly terrified of stepping on one this time of year!

The same for me... but toads. I hate them and get panicky when I see them. We've had a complete plague of the bleeping bleepers this year. My back yard at home seems to be some sort of toad Mecca, they stroll about without a care in the world while I'm doing my best to stop my heart from pounding out of my chest. Actually, I can feel my heart beat increasing as I type this.

 

[The wife]

Yes very! But then again our yard is built on the grounds of a 14th century monastery, complete with graveyard with real life found bones during renovations!

There are 4 documented ghostly sightings here and I believe I see every single one every night during the winter... Funnily enough they never come out to play during the summer...

I am a proper scardey cat though, even worse since I saw a figure (who was a real man) stood quietly waiting for me to pass with my horses - public footpath runs through fields. Well I think he was real anyway. I hope he was.

There is a corner as well that passes over a small footbridge that every horse spooks at. It is known as spooky corner and is where the wind whips through the rushes. I always see figures stood on it.

 

[stencilface]

Not really, I turn the lights on and stick the radio on. Love listening for owls.

One day as kids we were walking home across the fields, on paths until a helicopter started following us and we legged it movie style across a field to 'escape' lol. We got to the next woods and were stopped from going any further by a policeman as they were searching for a man who'd done a hit and run and gone into the woods, they were on there with dogs as well as using the helicopter.

And I love frogs and toads, always feel sad this time of year when there's so many squished on the roads

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

If I'm popping back to check on H/ popping back to double check I definitely locked his door (why does that always happen about an hour after you've left and even though you know you shut it you still must check? !) I usually move pretty quickly as although yo lives on site there are a couple of different yards so it always makes me fret what could be hiding round the corner. Plus the gate is locked so I climb over that then onto the driveway which is on a dark lane with trees that like to blow in the wind.
Did go to look at livery once and the people were lovely but to get to the fields which were on the downs you had to walk up a dark lane and the yard itself was a bit like a ones you see in period dramas gave me the shivers in the daylight let alone if I'd been there on my own after dark. It just had this eerie feel.

 

[Abi90]

I find my house spooky at night let alone the yard!

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I don't mind my yard at night at the YO's house is about 20ft away from the stables, but I do not like my own house at night!!

Have been known to turn the light off and 'run' up the hallway to my bedroom, absolute wimp! But always wake up in the night, see dark figures in my room and squeeze my eyes closed again to just go back to sleep rather than seeing it again. And I never watch horror movies!

 

[Patchworkpony]

Yes very! But then again our yard is built on the grounds of a 14th century monastery, complete with graveyard with real life found bones during renovations!

There are 4 documented ghostly sightings here and I believe I see every single one every night during the winter... Funnily enough they never come out to play during the summer...

I am a proper scardey cat though, even worse since I saw a figure (who was a real man) stood quietly waiting for me to pass with my horses - public footpath runs through fields. Well I think he was real anyway. I hope he was.

There is a corner as well that passes over a small footbridge that every horse spooks at. It is known as spooky corner and is where the wind whips through the rushes. I always see figures stood on it.

OMG - I so believe in ghosts as we lived in an old haunted house once where the stable yard had a cottage attached that was so active that things were thrown at my gardener and his hand was slammed against the wall making it bleed. Funnily enough though it's not past people that scare me but present ones with possible evil intent.

 

[FlyingCircus]

I get nervous bringing in at night sometimes as the field is a long walk from the yard, but there's lots of noises nearby due to roads/houses...So I speed walk to the field, shouting my horse. He meets me at the gate, I jump on him and ride back up to the yard. As soon as I'm on him, I feel way safer. Maybe because I can outrun anything if I need to when I'm on him? Haha