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Ghost/Horse Meeting 1
And still of a winter's night, they say,
When the wind is in the trees ...
The highwayman comes riding, riding, riding;
The Highway man comes riding ...."
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman.
What lends itself better to the mysterious and dramatic than the horse? What other animal has such a huge role in cur species' history? It's only natural that horses should have their place in our ghost stories. Also, folklorist Vance Randolph told us of an old belief: horses will show us any ghosts that are near. We need only look straight out between our mounts' ears.
Even horsepeople too young to have read Randolph jokingly credit equines with ability to sense ghosts, or to think they do. The language of horse people is full of it. "He's young and spooky yet, " means a colt has not yet learned to take the unexpected in stride. "Oh ... spooky looking!" they say of sights that might alarm horses.
But this can be a serious issue, because equines, being prey animals, are always alert for danger and ready to run from it. They often make their own sudden decisions in this matter, to the peril of their riders. Here's the story of a horse who had the ultimate ghost test.
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The Chruch Lady
A Mexico, MO woman told me of a really wild ride. In her country community, since before she was born, she said, people talked of a ghost inhabiting a certain deserted little church. It appeared as an emaciated old woman with flying white hair and always naked. Nobody suggested anything worse than just seeing her, but on a certain stormy night one horseman had an extremely close encounter. He had taken refuge in the church but because of its reputation, stood barely inside the vestibule, holding his horse's reins. He was resolved not to look behind him, or to left or right.
However, the ghost announced herself with a shrill laugh that could not be ignored. A lightning flash revealed the apparition he'd heard of all his life. Helped by adrenaline, the man jumped onto his horse and spurred it away from the church door. To his horror, the next lightning flash revealed the old woman, ravaged, flabby and grinning crazily, perched behind his saddle. The story does not say whether he could feel her holding onto his body or his clothes; it does not say whether she went all the way home with him, or how the horse reacted to her presence.
(This story appears in More Missouri Ghosts. The Noyes poem
is well worth looking up; It tells an excellent ghost story.)
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