Spooky horse tales for halloween

When I was a teenager I used to help out at a local(ish) riding school in return for free rides. The riding school was essentially the house, which was a converted church and some fields, one of which was fenced off to make an arena. The yard owner had 2 dogs, a Yorkshire Terrier and a Great Dane (odd mix I know)The yard was located high up on the Staffordshire Moolands so it often got foggy in the cooler months.
One such foggy Saturday, the yard owner announced that they were going into town to get some provisions and would be about an hour or so. This meant leaving myself and another teenager girl behind to catch in five of the ponies, bring them into the paddock nearest to the house and tie them up to hitching posts to groom them ready for lessons later that day. Ponies were duly caught, and tied up with access to haynets, the fog had gotten a lot thicker, so much so that i couldn't see the other girl who was only a few feet away. As we walked away from the ponies to get the grooming kits, they started to neigh and fidget about, but I couldn't see what was upsetting them. 'Maybe it's a ghost' said the other girl 'I've heard churches are haunted' and with that she ran into the house leaving me outside . Not being the bravest of souls, I followed with the intention of hiding behind the Great Dane in the lounge, but she hadn't beaten me to it.
Safely ensconced in the living room (me brandishing the Yorkshire Terrier), we could hear movement outside of the house/church in the form of someone crunching on the gravel outside the window. Ponies were still being agitated outside but I wasn't going to go and look. Being teenage girls, we had, at this point, convinced ourselves that there was an evil spirit lurking outside in the fog. Things then got a little more hairy when we heard the big wooden front door of the church open and then footsteps approaching via the hallway and coming towards the living room where we were hiding behind the dogs. The dogs were now growling and all four of us were looking at the living room door when the footsteps stopped. The door stayed close and we heard no other noise other than the growling of the dogs. After a few minutes I was urged to go and open the door, so I tried to take the Great Dane with me, but he wouldn't budge, so instead I held the Yorkie out in front of me and open the lounge door...to find nothing there.
We were actually so scared, that we stayed in the lounge until the yard owner returned and found us cowering on the sofa. The yard owner did suspect the house was haunted as there had been some unexplained 'happenings' since they had moved in, but nothing sinister so she was happy to share her house with the 'spirit'. She was rather bemused to find us behaving like a couple of scaredy cats and pulled our legs relentlessly for several week afterwards.
I am not sure if I actually believe in ghosts, but I can't explain what happened that day.
 
I grew up in Devon. When I was at college doing my A levels my pony was put on loan on the edge of Dartmoor and I still used to go and ride her when I had time. I didn't know the area so I used to just set off exploring the bridlepaths and moors for hours at a time.

One day I rode along a bridlepath I found which came out on a road forming a cross roads with the path and the road. There was what I though was a bank on the crossing with some dead flowers on top. My pony refused to go past and was very panicked and upset.

She wasn't spooky at all but a very level headed type and had done a lot of cross country and this looked a bit like a bank you might find on a cross country course so this was totally out of character.

Eventually I had to get off and managed to lead her past with her staying as far away as she could though nearly climbing up a wall. Once past I got back on and carried on my ride and she calmed down as soon as we were past.

Years later I was flicking through a coffee table type book at someones house which had legends and ghost stories in and I came across a picture of that bank. It was in fact Jay's Grave, which is supposed to be the grave of a young girl who got pregnant and killed herself and is supposed to be haunted.

Ps looking at it once I knew what it was it does look gravelike but when I saw it not knowing I didn't think grave just bank -I had been doing a lot of cross country.
 
Ohhh, Criso, I just looked up Jay's Grave on the internet and found a picture of it (on Wikipedia). I should be working at the moment, but this is much more interesting!
 
criso said:
Looking at it I do wonder why I didn't think grave at the time but then dartmoor is full of old monuments and stones and funny little banks that it never occurred to me.
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To be fair, I don't think many people would expect to find a grave outside of more typical places like churchyards.

Dartmoor sounds a fantastic place to go off adventuring on horseback. Wish I could pack up and go. Also, if I was in the area that the OP wrote about, I would definitely have to go and investigate where the ice pony came from (in broad daylight with a brave friend, obviously!)
 
Cobbytype said:
I thought it would be interesting to share some spooky equestrian tales, what with Halloween just around the corner.

So, first of all, I'm not a looney:-) I don't read tea leaves, I don't see auras or get messages from beyond, but there have been just a few things that have happened during my life which have no logical explanation. I'm over 50 btw, so the odd things have been interspersed by many years of ordinary stuff.

I live in a tiny village, which is for the most part sleepy and peaceful. Twenty odd years ago I had 2 Jack Russells. They were young, fit and energetic. I always gave them a long walk during my extended lunch break and then a short walk last thing at night. If I was walking alone with the dogs, I'd only walk to the edge of the village and back, as once the street lights ran out, the lanes were very dark.

As usual, I took the JR's out for their evening walk on their leads. I walked down my road and took a right turn onto a road that, at that time, only had 3 houses, a village hall and a large old rambling hall which stood back about 300m from the road. I was always quite alert when walking, as on one occasion I came across some 'lampers' who fixed me and the dogs in their spotlight and for a moment I thought they were going to shoot. Instead they just dazzled us for a time and drove past with a couple of dodgy looking men sat in the back of the truck with their guns pointing out. I kept my head down and carried on walking and they carried on by. I digress...

So, I'd walked past the 3 houses and past the entrance to the hall, which is where the last village lamp post is. It was time to turn back, but I went slightly further than usual. The dogs were busy as usual, strutting out in front, enjoying their evening stroll. I had to keep my wits about me, as one of my JR's was very aggressive to other animals, so I was always on the look out for anything she might get hold of - she wasn't fussy, cats, hares, other dogs were all good game for a fight. Suddenly I noticed a large-ish white shape in the road ahead of us. It looked like a large sheep and it was looking at us. It wasn't far away, maybe about 10 metres or so. I immediately turned the dogs around - it was 11.30 at night and the last thing I wanted was the inevitable yapping, aggression and excitement that would no doubt wake the sleeping village.

I headed back home, thankful that I'd spotted the sheep before the dogs had. I thought that it was really odd seeing a sheep, as at that time there weren't any in the village; most of the land is arable around here. I had a think about calling someone to notify them of the stray sheep, but didn't know any of the farmers in neighbouring villages and it was late, so I left it at that. By the next day it was all but forgotten.

For the next few weeks all was fine and I did my usual evening walks without anything eventful happening. As I live in the middle of the village, I used to vary my routes, but each one was no more than a few hundred metres, as the village is small and I didn't like venturing out into the dark lanes. Then one night, the exact same thing happened. I walked the dogs just that little bit further than usual and the white shape was in the same spot again. It was stood still and I know it was looking towards us, so once again I turned the dogs around and hot footed it home. 'How strange' I thought; to see the same thing in the same place. I did wonder why a sheep would just stand there staring and I did think it odd that a sheep would stray so far as it's more than a mile to the next village. But soon it was forgotten.

My sister called around one evening and she stayed quite late. At that time she had a spaniel and we decided to take a walk together. I had to be careful as my aggressive JR would only just about tolerate my sister's dog and given half a chance she'd pounce and bite the unsuspecting spaniel. So, we're walking together, chatting. We walked past the hall and onwards into darkness. I spotted the white shape ahead, which was stood in the same spot as before and said to my sister 'Can you see what I can see?' A nervous voice replied 'Yes'. We did no more and turned around and hot footed it home. I told my sister that I'd seen 'it' before, but had initially thought it was a stray sheep.

A couple of days later my sister came to tell me something. She'd mentioned what we'd seen to a chap who had lived in the village all his life. She'd expected him to laugh and tease her when she told him of the white shape in the road, but he didn't. Apparently, as legend has it, what we saw was a white pony. There's a wood about another 300m up the road, which has an old ice house in it and the ponies would pull the ice from the wood to the hall. The pony looked small (apparently) because the road has been build up since the days when it would only have been a dirt track.

I have to drive along the road at night sometimes and I often hold my breath when I pass the ice house wood, just in case the white shape appears, but I've not seen it since those sightings all those years ago. But I did stop walking up there at night after my sister told me we'd seen a ghost!
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Interesting story. The pony might have looked small simply because in life, it was. There is a big archaeological dig going on quite near me, excavating a huge mill that burned down at the end of the 1800s. One day I was passing and stopped to talk to the diggers and asked what the cobbled bit they had just exposed was, and was told it was stables (stalls) for horses of the mill-owners posh friends who were visiting. Straight away, I said, horses no, ponies yes. They were way too small to have got a good sized horse in and out, and the stable-hand past between horse and the divider to tie-up, give a nosebag to or whatever. At best I would say 14.2hh. But we just assume that they rode big hunter types. I'm willing to bet that many were a bit too well-fed, arthritic or whatever and a chunky pony was more than suitable for their needs. Cheaper to keep too! Very likely a ride and drive cob type so it could take the family to church on Sundays. Interestingly a good few months later one of the diggers told me that his horse-owning daughter had said exactly the same thing.
 
criso said:
I grew up in Devon. When I was at college doing my A levels my pony was put on loan on the edge of Dartmoor and I still used to go and ride her when I had time. I didn't know the area so I used to just set off exploring the bridlepaths and moors for hours at a time.

One day I rode along a bridlepath I found which came out on a road forming a cross roads with the path and the road. There was what I though was a bank on the crossing with some dead flowers on top. My pony refused to go past and was very panicked and upset.

She wasn't spooky at all but a very level headed type and had done a lot of cross country and this looked a bit like a bank you might find on a cross country course so this was totally out of character.

Eventually I had to get off and managed to lead her past with her staying as far away as she could though nearly climbing up a wall. Once past I got back on and carried on my ride and she calmed down as soon as we were past.

Years later I was flicking through a coffee table type book at someones house which had legends and ghost stories in and I came across a picture of that bank. It was in fact Jay's Grave, which is supposed to be the grave of a young girl who got pregnant and killed herself and is supposed to be haunted.

Ps looking at it once I knew what it was it does look gravelike but when I saw it not knowing I didn't think grave just bank -I had been doing a lot of cross country.
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Suicide was considered a sin against God and they were never buried in consecrated ground, but very commonly at cross-roads.
 
fatpiggy said:
Suicide was considered a sin against God and they were never buried in consecrated ground, but very commonly at cross-roads.
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Slightly off topic but weren't witches buried 'the wrong way around' as well? I.e rather than north to south they were buried east to west - or something like that? As a child we used to go to the local cemetery where a witch was allegedly buried - and her grave was not facing in the same way as all of the others - it was at right angles to the rest. legend had it that if you danced round her grave and chanted her name 3 times she would come after you.
 
These stories are fascinating. I'm feeling all goosepimpley...

I do have a story to tell and it was only a few years ago. I live in a deep valley on the very edge of where the Cotswold Way begins, and kept both my horses there at an old farm for the last five years or so. It was early morning and I was exercising my old horse down a muddy lane which borders a friends yard and I can see her fields over the hedge. I saw her old horse in the paddock looking at me. So as I got closer, I clicked my tongue and said "hello C..." for him to come over and get a rub over the hedge. I usually said hello to her horses if I was riding past but my otherwise laid back mount was being a plonker. I decided to just concentrate on getting home, which was only a few fields away. Thought no more of it.

As I was untacking hurriedly so I could turn out and get to work, the lady of the manor came out and asked if I'd seen Amy as I rode past. I said that I hadn't but saw C in the field. She stared agape at me for a while, then said "well, you can't have, he was put down overnight with colic". A's mum had rang and notified the lady as she rented the yard from the farm. I was adamant she was wrong as I'd seen him not 20 minutes ago.
 
Optimissteeq said:
Slightly off topic but weren't witches buried 'the wrong way around' as well? I.e rather than north to south they were buried east to west - or something like that? As a child we used to go to the local cemetery where a witch was allegedly buried - and her grave was not facing in the same way as all of the others - it was at right angles to the rest. legend had it that if you danced round her grave and chanted her name 3 times she would come after you.
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Yes, face down as well I think. Sometimes with a boulder over them to stop them sneaking out.
 
Loving this thread :)
Not me but my grandad had a refurb\construction business he had a job at a big manor house. It was far away so he and some colleages travelled up there, the owner offered them the guest rooms in the house to stay the night. One of the guys declined and drove back as he said the house was too 'creepy' lol
My grandad said he had the worst nights sleep ever as it was so noisy, people were having a party downstairs, playing piano, making a racket and he said he thought he heard a sound like horses hooves on the cobbles outside. The next morn my grandad got up and it was his colleage who a comment first to the owner 'that must have been some party last night' . The owner said he and my grandad were the only ones there. They didn't stay again after that lol
 
I love this thread too, mine is semi horsey, does that qualify?

I believe in Ghosts and spirits, always have, always will (a couple of members of my close family often come out with things you just cannot explain), however a friend of mine was always adamant that it was all utter cr*p. So we said, whoever dies first has to come and let the other know, and of course years later I had forgotten this was ever said.

I had just come back from holiday, and didn't even go in the house before practically running through the farm I kept my horses on and to have a cuddle and say hello. I was down there about 10 mins and I heard someone walking across and Sandy the pony whickered so thought oh must be my friend, turned around and it was. You can always trust a pony to recognise who feeds them! So had the same chat as we always have, all the pleasantries but very brief as I was not dressed appropriately having just come back from Portugal. I left her down there with Sandy and nipped back in to change and come back out. Our houses were terraced so I walked past and their garden was full of flowers, thinking that was weird I went home to be told that she had passed away in a tragic accident a day after I left for my holiday. And I'm not sure why but I still have never told anyone.
 
I posted this when it happened, but might as well go again!

I left my horse eating his tea in his stable with the light on. When I came back out it was dark, and I could see the shadow of his head in the square of light on the yard that spilt out over the stable door. Next to him I could have sworn I saw a dark shape, maybe about the same height as me or slightly shorter, quite slim, but a somehow masculine sort of shape. Billy wasn't staring out at the lights on the hill, as he normally is when he's gawping out of the door instead of eating his tea. He had his head low down, in typical 'searching pockets for treats' position. When I got to him he hadn't finished eating, but he was totally relaxed, like he is when he's had a really good scratch. Usually if he hasn't finished eating, he thinks he's seen something outside and is tense and on his tiptoes trying to see it.

I wondered (hoped) it might be my great granddad. I never met him, but he was in his 90s when he died (so would be quite small), he was always fairly slim, and he loved horses. He took our farm in 1936, and lived here until he died in the 1980s. I got a real shiver down my spine all the way back out to the field, as though someone was following me, so I said out loud 'Please don't do anything to make me jump, Grandad!' and the feeling subsided a little. I thought about running inside, but I thought if Great Grandad was watching he wouldn't be very impressed if I left the stable in need of mucking out and the feed bucket unwashed until morning!
 
I've seen Jays grave. It always has fresh flowers on it.

I posted these stories in club house.
- at my old work the on call bedroom was next to the only door in the department. Only authorised staff could enter via the card proximity reader. Several times people were disturbed by the sound of the door opening & foot steps walking through the department. They would go to investigate to find the department totally empty.

- current hospital has a corridor where lots of people feel very sad & anxious. The porters who go down there a lot have reported hearing the sound of a woman crying but can't find the source.

- my friends daughter friend moved into a new flat. Not long afterwards her her young daughter started having nightmares about a 'lady in her room'. One night she had some friends around for drinks and to watch a film, they were taking selfies etc. In 2 of the group selfies there is a blonde woman who they claim wasn't one of them (I've seen the pictures). Freaked out she started doing some digging and found out that the flat above her had belonged to a young couple (the woman was blonde), the man had murdered the woman on holiday in Gran Canaria.

Finally this has happened last week:
A girl at work is really struggling with her mum dying from cancer. She had been sat at the hospice with her mum & immediate family & they were talking about her grandmother who had died a few years ago. One of their memories was whenever they stayed at her house just before they went to bed the grandmother always used to scoot into the bedrooms & turn back the corner of the duvet & blankets for them.
A got home late but her husband was sat up waiting for her. When she went into her bedroom the duvet on her side had been turned back.
 
We had a welsh cob put down years ago and few days later I put his field companion into his stable to keep the horse alongside company. His field companion was a bossy confident fell who once the stable door was shut walked round and round snorting and staring at the floor of the box where the cob had been put down. When we opened the door the fell practically galloped out and refused to ever go in there again.
 
I love this thread. Not sure how well I'll sleep tonight mind! :D
I don't have any horsey ghost stories, though like another contributor I do seem to have a knack to just knowing when something is about to happen, and it's not usually something good.
Most recently was a two years ago, I was at work on duty in the small hours and had an overwhelming feeling I needed to call my mum, a looming bad feeling. I did, and she told me she had just got off the phone to my grandma, who told her my godmother had died that evening very suddenly.
The time before that was before I had a car accident. I was driving to work and passed an ambulance, as it came towards me I was fixated on it, and experienced a sort of awareness of it, again with that looming feeling. Later that night, again in the small hours, I was driving back from work and hit a patch of black ice and lost control of my car, it flipped and landed in a field. Then I got my trip in the ambulance.
 
Ah I love these threads. I posted this on the last one.
I was out hacking super early one summer morning, bright sunshine, lovely clear day. Saw a man walking towards me in the distance and thought crikey hes out early for a walk. As I got closer I noticed that he was dressed very smart including a smart walking stick and a pocket watch. Called out a cheery morning! For him to totally blank me and stride on by. Could have just been a strange guy out for a walk at 6am but it was an old quarry (converted one I might add into parkland) many years ago and the way he was walking simply goes in a circle.

Also where I work the building is 16th century and frequently has strange things happen. Whenever furniture is moved or changed, something happens. Light fittings falling down, doors opening themselves and on one occasion I saw the lid off a plastic bin literally propelled into the air for no apparent reason. Properly freaked me out. I'm actually a bit of a cynic but find this stuff truly fascinating.
 
Ooh, I've got lots. I'm actually a very rational, down-to-earth type of person, but I cannot deny my own experiences.

To start off, I grew up in a haunted house - quite literally. All the fun would go on at night - heavy steps in the attic, the sound of doors opening, cabinet doors rattling, plates being thrown to the ground. It didn't happen all the time, but when it did, it was impressive - my whole family remembers this, so it's not just the fantasies of an imaginative child. We moved soon after moving in.

Years later, my first cat died in my arms. It was very sudden and very dramatic. For days after, I'd hear her grooming herself by my bed...then hopping up and walking over the blankets, her little paws pressing onto my legs and arms. If I stretched my arm out without looking, I could feel her fur, but, if I looked, she was gone. I could have been going mad from grief...but several friends who stayed overnight during that period asked me if I had taken up another cat who was shy and hiding during the day. I hadn't told them, but they experienced all the same things I did. It gradually stopped over the next few months after her passing.

Later yet, when I had just started riding lessons at a local lesson yard, I befriended an instructor and she would occasionally give me a ride home. That night, it was a dark November evening and I was waiting for her outside the house, right by the stables, with a woodlands area behind my back. All the horses were already stabled, so I was startled when a horse suddenly touched my hand with his nose from behind and blew a heavy breath. I jumped around to catch the horse who had apparently somehow escaped his stall...with nothing to be seen. I was alone and, to be honest, quite spooked. When I told this to the instructor, she revealed that a horse had passed away a year ago or so, and buried near to where I stood that night, in the woods. I was later shown his grave.

After a few years, when I had bought my gelding and moved to a new yard, I was hacking alone and dusk was approaching. Suddenly, my horse grew agitated and I saw a tall man in a dirty military trench coat standing behind a pine tree. I greeted him, but he didn't react, just stared off in the distance. It was not far from the stables, so I was relieved to just let my horse nervously jog past the man and return home. When I told the YO about it, she just laughed and said I had apparently met "the Greatcoat". Turns out, almost everybody at the yard had seen him and he was thought to be a victim from the WW2. Where the yard stands now, used to be an active war zone, many retrenchments and burial grounds in the nearby woods. For the years I stayed at this yard, I met the Greatcoat several times, always standing in the same place, always with the same, blank look in his eyes.

And, the most recent one - at my current yard, a gelding was recently put down. However, he can still be met in the fields on occasion - if you call the horses from a distance and count the heads in the herd while they approach you, there's always one more than the ones who actually come to you.
 
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A friend lived in a haunted house at Writtle. There were several incidents and she believed a spirit followed her home. One late night leaving the yard, she went to open the gate to leave and turn d back to the car, only to see a shadowy figure getting into the passenger side. I have no idea how she got into her car!! She often said we were walking through the spirit, we felt the cold spots, but just thought it was the shadows. She eventually saw a spiritualist who asked the spirit to leave.
 
At the first yard I kept my horse on, the owner had some showjumpers for her grown-up children. My stable shared a party wall with the indoor arena, and there were one or two small holes in the blockwork so I could see into the arena. The centre of my stable wall was at letter B so exactly half way along the long side of the arena. One Sunday morning I was up to feed my horse, it was about 8am and there was no-one else there, and the yard gates were closed (and relocked by me, I didn't want unwanted guests wandering in off the road). My horse had to be fed in the indoor as she was epileptic and eating her breakfast was the trigger. She ate a few mouthfuls, no sign of any trouble so I shut her in and went to muck out. After a few minutes I could hear the sound of trotting poles being tapped lightly by shod hooves, so peered through the holes in the wall, but horse was munching quietly still. Carried on mucking out and there were some very loud knocks on the poles, so I went down to where there was a window into the arena - all quiet and horse still eating. I was a bit perplexed, but went back to my mucking out. Then there was a loud crash of an entire wooden jump, poles, wings, the lot hitting the floor directly behind my back wall so I rushed around to the arena door, ran in and found my horse dozing quietly on the far side of the arena - and there were no jumps or poles of any description in there. I just couldn't work it out. I knew exactly what I had heard, there was no mistaking it,but there was nothing there that could have caused any of the sound. My horse didn't seem bothered. For a year I never said anything to anyone about it, mostly because I didn't understand it myself, and felt a bit foolish. But then the YO had a party and I was invited as a family friend and a few drinks loosened my tongue and I told the YO what had happened that day. She immediately asked me if I remembered a showjumper her son had owned. It was before my time but I'd seen photos of him and knew who she was talking about. She then told me that he had been put down in the indoor arena. So was it him who lazily rang the trotting poles and knocked down the jump?
 
A year ago I lost my horse of a lifetime. The anniversary of the evening before he was pts, at pretty much the same time as I said what turned out to be my final goodbye, I got home from work and walked into the living room. We have a huge picture above our mantlepiece. As soon as I walked in the living room, which is where I keep his ashes, it fell off the wall. Nothing else was knocked off the mantlepiece except a picture of me and Mickey together. None of the statues or other pictures or anything.

The next day, the anniversary of his death, I went to get my horse in. he went crazy. Snorting and staring and then running round and round his field, for all the world like he was playing with another horse I couldn't see. it took me a good 15 mins to catch him and he's not normally like that at all. I swear Mick was with me.
 
Patchworkpony said:
So many stories of dead horses coming back - hands up all those who believe we will be reunited with our beloved equines again one day.
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Without any doubt!!! I love the bit in the Worlds End book where the horses wait for their owners to join them (although it brings a tear to my eye!!).
 
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