What's the strangest thing you've had happen at your yard?

B

baymareb

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 July 2010
Messages
524
Location
California, U.S.
Visit site
I'm picking up on the lingo - barn over here, yard there. :p

Anywho, what's the strangest occurrence you've had - thefts, or strange goings-on, or whatever?

Here, I'd have to say that our Midnight Rider was the strangest. For a couple of months, reports kept coming in of horses being taken out in the night and ridden. Our stable is a very large one - there's a winery, a riding school, they do summer camps and there are dozens of barns so there are at least 125 or more boarders plus the facilities' horses.

People reported coming in and finding their horse put up sweaty with saddle marks, there were some injuries to a couple of horse and one was found in her stall tied up with no access to water.

It was quite nasty and stressful - it finally stopped when the owner confronted a girl who he claimed was the culprit. I know nothing more about it but she wasn't thrown out (in fact, she's stabled right next door to me :eek: ). Everything I got was secondhand so it's all a mystery - I don't know if he caught her red-handed or just suspected.

What's your strange story?
 
Not anything particularly odd but on the yard we had a mare kept in a separate paddock from the other mares as she could be a bit funny. It was the paddock next door with a secure gate. She started being found in with them with nothing untoward happening but with the gate still shut and not a mark on her to suggest she'd gone over the fence. She was then put back in her own paddock again but it continued happening. We thought it might be walkers (right of way through her field) who thought she'd got out and put her back in with the others but it turned out to be her...just calming managing to open the gate catch, let herself in and then we assume gate just would swing and close securely behind her. It was almost like she'd decided she wanted to be with the others again and they've been very happily all in together since. She's a sweetie and has become a great pal to a doddery old mare in there.
 
I remember a woman at our yard tried to do an insurance claim on someone elses horse - she has taken pics of it and then said it died to claim the insurance money -lots of police came and horse was totally fine and needless to say we never saw her again.
 
That girl/whoever in your barn is such a wierdo! Who would DO that???

My strange story is stranger than fiction!!! I worked on a yard years ago and lived in a caravan over the summer there on my own opposite the fields where the horses were turned out. One night while I was reading my book in bed, I heard all the horses screaming and thought that maybe one had got stuck in the ditch. So I got up and threw on my wellies and coat while outside I heard the thundering hooves and imagined the worst.

I opened the door, it was mid summer about 10pm so the sky still had a purpley-blue glow to it and the hills were silhouetted black against the sky, and could see the horses, all tails and heads up, looking up to the sky. I was trying my hardest to see who was in the ditch. I walked to the fence about 20 yds away and then I looked up only to see three UFOs. All cylindrical in shape, quite loud, silvery black. One was travelling at great speed from the hills, another hovered above the fields not that far up, another was near the farmhouse moving really slowly. As they were waiting for the third to catch up. As soon as it was near, all three shoomed off. I was completely rooted to the spot with my mouth open.

I know I wasn't dreaming as the family in the farmhouse saw them too and then there were reports on the local radio the next day.

After they left the horses calmed down immediately as if nothing happened and I thought I would have trouble turning them out again but apart from a few glances up to the sky for a few days afterwards, they were none-the-worse for thier experience!!!
 
The annual harri crishna festival (YO is harri crishna and has a temple on the land).

Its so colourful, bright and loud they go round blessing the fields ect, Honey just watches on quite calmly, yet to find out Mystis reaction .. she'll probs wanna join in :D :p
 
We have had a couple of light airplane crashes - one just ran out of fuel and he bought it down to rest quite calmly - it sat there for a couple of days and then all of a sudden was gone. The other one was a man delivering a new airplane from sittingbourne to eastbourne and literally a couple of minutes after take off the engine casin split in half and it came down in the field at the back of us in a field full of cattle. When he finally made his way out he said he wasn't sure what was worse sitting in a airplane that had just crashed or trying to get to the fence through 100 head of cattle :)
 
I walked passed the back of my trailer one morning to find the back doors open (has doors rather than a ramp), I then noticed that my partition was on the floor outside the trailer. I called my friend, and being quite confused we concluded one of the liveries must have done it, although couldn't work out why as we're a small nice bunch. I then noticed a shovel next to my wheel lock which had damage to it and realised someone had tried to steal it.

Was a very odd couple of minutes!!
 
At my one of my old yards we had a Midnight Rider incident but rather than find the horses sweaty and used we would find then beautifully plaited up as if off to a show both manes and tails, hooves oiled, fully groomed.

Totally bizarre happened once a month for about 3 months then stopped.
 
My best friend kept her pony on a yard close to home, on an old WW2 airfield.

The stables were enclosed on a yard with the YO's house and front door on the edge, shut in with two high security gates, which were locked, and had security lighting, and the owner kept GSD's kennelled by the yard.

The YO checked the horses last thing at night, always, and was a stickler for kick bolts being across, as once out of the yard the horses were close to a very busy road.
The YO heard barking, and looked out, but the lighting wasn't on, and no-one about. She did her late night checks, and everything was fine.
A bit later heard barking again, but again, no security lights on, and no-one about, so went to bed, thinking it was a fox.

In the early hours she woke to barking again (her bedroom was next to yard), so went out to tell the dogs to be quiet. As she walked out the door, the lights came on as usual, and all looked to be fine, except one stable door open.

Friend's pony had gone, but the gates were still shut and locked. Pony nowhere to be found.

The eventually found it wandering on the air field.

Had someone tried to steal it, it's headcollar was outside it's stable..... but no rope / headcollar had been used. No break in the fencing, granted, it could have jumped, but the security lights never came on and it was wearing shoes and the YO never heard a thing. :confused:


Also at old yard someone came in in the night with a screwdriver and turned all the door catches upside down, and later came on odd nights and stole random useless bits and bobs.
 
Oh wow this is all very creepy!! The worst we've had was every day when we came down all of Kelly and Pebbles' headcollars were undone, like the clips, buckles and they were hung back up after being undone...never found out who or why!!
 
I think the worst thing that happened to me was a long time ago in my youth......I was cycling down the very dark lane from the field to the main road, and all you could hear was this screaming - sounded like someone was being murdered, it was that bad. Men screaming.

As I got near to it, two men came out of the bushes. I was so terrified I've never cycled so fast whilst holding onto a saddle. I got home and told mum someone had been murdered, she called the police - but, yup, you've guessed it ;) I'll never forget that fear or that noise. sm x
 
Oooh, this is a good thread!! Nothing spooky happened to me yet, but used to be at a place that was really just a field and a few stables, and was on the grounds of an old Manor house, and occassionally when we had sick horses and we were sat up there in the middle of the night it was very scarey, as there are stories of ghosts prowling the grounds! :eek: I just made sure I stayed close to horse to protect me.
 
we make our winter feeds up ready to go and we always put some apples or carrots in with their feed. anyway for a bout 2 months, we would go up the yard in the morning to feed and find someone had taken out all the cut up apples and carrots out of the feed. at first we thought it must have been an animal but they were in a feed bin with the lid on so it must have been a clever animal to take the lid off, eat the apples and carrots and put the lid back on. was very odd.
 
shysmum said:
I think the worst thing that happened to me was a long time ago in my youth......I was cycling down the very dark lane from the field to the main road, and all you could hear was this screaming - sounded like someone was being murdered, it was that bad. Men screaming.

As I got near to it, two men came out of the bushes. I was so terrified I've never cycled so fast whilst holding onto a saddle. I got home and told mum someone had been murdered, she called the police - but, yup, you've guessed it ;) I'll never forget that fear or that noise. sm x
Click to expand...

ha ha that took me ages to work out.
Great stories, the worst I have had is a ferret found dead in with a highland pony. Couldn't have picked a worse one to go in to find some shelter lol
 
The worst thing ive ever had happen to me down the yard, (not current one) was I turned up late one summers evening to wash down my horse as going to a show the next day.
I walked into the yard and heard alot of screaming, and shouting as if they were being beat up, so I called the YO husband as I thought he would deal with it better then me, being only 13 at the time. So down he came (livid on site) and he walked into the tack room to find his wife in there with the RI.
No I dont know what was worst; the sounds of the screaming before the husband found out, the screaming afterwards, both really haughted me for ages. Plus it was the first time id seen such things.
Mum quickly moved the horse after that
 
shysmum said:
I think the worst thing that happened to me was a long time ago in my youth......I was cycling down the very dark lane from the field to the main road, and all you could hear was this screaming - sounded like someone was being murdered, it was that bad. Men screaming.

As I got near to it, two men came out of the bushes. I was so terrified I've never cycled so fast whilst holding onto a saddle. I got home and told mum someone had been murdered, she called the police - but, yup, you've guessed it ;) I'll never forget that fear or that noise. sm x
Click to expand...

Huh? I think im being blonde....what was it?

I've had several experiences but not on the yard im on now!
Thankfully!
The first one i had was at my riding school - it was a grade II listed building - the yard was originally the yard only it had a bout two foot's worth of concrete over the top...
Hence the reason we knew it was a ghost...when we couldn't see his knees!
He was regularly seen - he just loved it so much he wanted to continue brushing....weird!!!
The other one was nothing really but scared the **** outta me and my best friend...
We have a large back field that is gated off - we trust and know our horses so we went round the field when it was starting to go dusk - didn't get back in time so we were walking carefully back to the yard and we heard a girl screaming and saw white across the field
Both froze in terror and then paniced thinking it was a ghost - turns out it was a girl escaping from the clutches of a man who was trying to harm her!!! :mad: She was shaken but ok :)
We had to go the police and give a statement - that was random!
I like stories - anybody got any ghost experiences? lol :D
 
We used to keep our horses at a very old quiet lonely yard, a few hundred meters off the main roads - it was really eerie down there and the horses never seemed to settle either. One winter my mum went down and was mucking out around 3pm and she saw someone mooching around in the bushes, she sneaked out the stable and went to my nans house and got my grandad to go back with her.
 
I have this every day so I am used to it, but we are met at the gates by armed soldiers, frequently get passed by tanks and armed vehicles and get quite a lot of soilders on marches going past.

Also we have microlights and small planes landing next to our fields. Have also been on a hack when a Chinook helicopter landed next to me.

Its all fab for bombroofing a four year old!!!! :)

It is all quite normal for me, but to someone else seeing a tank drive past you on a hack must be quite odd!
 
We always get really low flying RAF planes, the black ones that travel really fast and make ALOT of noise!! the horses are used to them now and dont bat an eyelid, when i first moved here one flew over the house - i really thought it was the apocolypse or something, i was phsically shaking and upset because it frightened me so much, i rang my OH and he laughed and explained!! was out in the garden last summer feeding the chickens with my 4yr daughter and one flew over, she burst into tears, poor thing!! you dont even here a build up noise from them, its just a sudden horrible noise thats mega loud!!
 
ShysMum - that had me in hysterics - took me ages to work it out too! I couldn't understand why there was smiley after a murder had taken place!!! I am happy to say that life on my yard is quiet, but then it's just me and I hope it stays quiet!! I did have a funny moment when I witnessed an aeroplane crash on one of the fields. I was chatting to out tenants and saw this plane crash, I was about to call 999 but couldn't understand why our tractor dude was still driving up and down the field. It turns out one of my brother's friends had popped in to say hi and regularly lands on stubble fields!!!! I did feel like a bit of a fool!
 
Oh just remembered another one ..!

Me & my friend where walking a friends dog round her x country course and the dog was the soppiest pup going, never really barked ect and we could hear someone walking & whistling and we thought it was my mum winding us up. And then the dog started growling and "chasing" somthing that wasnt there as if he was chasing off a intruder :eek:

We were so scared! And funnily enough everytime friends cob went past the spot he bombed off :eek: :eek: :o
 
My YO was telling me how once they had what in hindsight is rather funny. The yard is alongside a cycle path, and the lorries and trailers are at the back. One lorry owner went into their (locked) lorry to find that it had been slept in! Someone (we assume somebody homeless) had let down the back ramp, got into the living through the horse area, and slept in it, even hooking up their little gas stove to cook some food! Obviously the lorry owners were less than impressed!
 
asterid said:
I have this every day so I am used to it, but we are met at the gates by armed soldiers, frequently get passed by tanks and armed vehicles and get quite a lot of soilders on marches going past.

Also we have microlights and small planes landing next to our fields. Have also been on a hack when a Chinook helicopter landed next to me.

Its all fab for bombroofing a four year old!!!! :)

It is all quite normal for me, but to someone else seeing a tank drive past you on a hack must be quite odd!
Click to expand...

Where are you Asterid? Im also used to this (minus the chinook!) ;) but soldiers are generally on horseback too :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top