AFTER SATURDAY’S PHOBLOG WHERE I ASKED WHO SENT THIS FIRST PHOTO TO ME OF ‘SPIRIT WING’ TO email me… MANY OF YOU ASKED FOR ME TO REPOST THE ‘HORSE GHOST’ POST, SO HERE IT IS!
Horse Ghosts? What do you think of these photos?
A reader sent this photo to me…
She said that her friend was taking a photo of the sun through the trees in her pasture – and when she looked at the photo, she saw this foreign image in the frame. It wasn’t there when she took the photo.
To the photographer, this image had to be her horse who had passed the week before. She was sure of it because her horse always stood right in that spot when she came to feed him. She knows it was him.
The reader who sent this to me insists it wasn’t altered in any way. What do you think?….
This subject made me pull up a post I wrote a few years ago on the subject. I’d love to hear your horse ghost stories! Please send them!
The reader who sent this in insists it wasn’t altered. She also insists that there was no image or anything in the pasture when she shot this beautiful sunlight coming through the trees. She also states that her beloved horse who had passed the week before, always stood in that same spot when she came to feed him…
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2010
I was having a few ghost nightmares last night which made me think of my childhood dogs. Weird segue, I know… But, when I was little, I remember hearing my dogs run up and down the hallways after they had passed. It seemed fine to me to hear them, until someone told me that it wasn’t. Hence the “eww, that was weird”, nightmare connection.
Anyway, as I was lying awake and thinking about ghosts and my ghost dogs, I came up with the topic for today. Horse Ghosts. However upon reflection, I realized that there are really two topics here. Horse Ghost photos and Horse Ghost stories.
Today we are going to go into Horse Ghost Photos.
HORSE GHOST PHOTOS or GHOST HORSE PHOTOS (I don’t know which is correct…)
I searched around to see if anyone had actually captured a photo of a horse ghost. To my surprise, there were several! Hmmmmmmm. I spent some time trying to debunk them. Of course, I’m no professional horse ghost photo debunker, so I decided to pass them onto you so that you could debunk them — or not.
FIRST UP, ROLLING GHOST
OK, this one blew my pajamas off. For me, I immediately saw the image. One real live horse is rolling, and so is his ghost companion. I’m sure all of you Photoshop geniuses can tell us how this is done. But, I read the photographer’s story and she said she was simply taking a photo of her silly horse rolling in his stall. There was nothing else there. When she downloaded the image, the ghost appeared. The girl had no idea who this horse might be but she was sure she didn’t create the image on her photograph. The one reason I believe her is that it looks just about exactly like where you would stand to take a photo of a rolling horse. You wouldn’t get any closer. So, the object (her horse) is in the center of her safely zone. It doesn’t look like she was purposefully leaving room for a ghost to appear on her photoshop. And, why bother faking it? Unless there is some cult following… why create horse ghosts? There doesn’t seem to be any market for that. If it was smoke, as another suggested, someone would be running at this point. I mean, if that much smoke was in a wood barn, you should drop the camera and RUN!
Can you see the ghost horse rolling?
PHOTO # 2, THE BABY MAMMA GHOST OK, I love this one. To me, either grandam or some mare buddy (or stud/gelding) was attending the birth. After all, a birth is monumental to a new Mamma mare. So, perhaps a few long lost friends came to help out.
A ghost horse helping with the birth?
PHOTO #3, CIVIL WAR GHOST HORSE This one is kinda sketchy for me… I mean, I see the horse image in the background, but I could also consider it a shadow of some sort. Here is what the photographer said: I am a Civil War re-enactor and was visiting the Chickamauga battlefield last year… I got home and developed the pictures there was one apparition of a dismounted horse behind me in the brush. Ghost Photo submited by Rick Kanan.
Do you see the horse in the background? Or is it a bushy shadow?
PHOTO #4, EEEEEEE, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?! This one gave me the willies, if it is indeed true what the girls said. As you can see, there is a faint image of a man riding a Paint horse right in front of the camera. My first thought was that this had to be a horse and rider that had passed in front of the camera quickly so the digital image was “ghosted” because there wasn’t enough light to snap the shutter in time to catch him clearly. Then I read her description:
“This is the horse and rider photograph I took at the Stockyards in Fort Worth a couple years ago. It was taken with a digital camera sometime around 8 pm. The man appears to be right in front of me, when he wasn’t anywhere to be seen by either myself or my friend who was with me. You can actually see right through the man and the horse, and the horse has no feet. He appears to be floating off the ground. My friend and I looked all around the arena that night for this rider and horse and he did not exist. There was no one in front of me when I took that picture. I have shown it to others and they say that the Stockyards are very ‘haunted’. That maybe this was someone who rode with the rodeo who just didn’t want to leave. ????”
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
PHOTO #5, COULDA HAPPENED — OLD BARN AND ALL.. I have no fear around this one. From the description, this is a very old (100+) barn. It figures that some animals would be hanging about. And, these two horses look rather friendly… if I was a ghost horse, I might pick them to haunt. What do you think? Here is what the photographer had to say:
Erica of Eureka Township, MN – The picture could have ecto mist, but as it was so cold, the breath of the horses could also have shown up in the picture…you decide. “I took this picture in the 100 year old or so horse barn I board my horse at, it was about 10 degrees above 0 that day so it was cold everywhere. There are orbs in probably half the pictures I take on this property, but not at any other locations that I take pictures.”
A little visitor, perhaps?
PHOTO #6 – LOOKS LIKE THOR TO ME. OK, well, this is supposed to be a horse but I think it is Thor, the God of Thunder. Can’t you see him leaning back ready to throw the lightening bolt in his outstretched arm? Yup I see something, but I don’t see a horse. The person who sent this in, thinks it is a horse since this was taken in a horse barn. I think it is Thor.
Thor, is that you?
LASTLY… I wanted to show you a photo of Norma when she was sick and in the barn (founder). I put her in Aladdin’s old stall.
Anyway, I took this photo, along with others, and posted it into my blog for that particular day. To my surprise, I received a landslide of emails telling me to look at all the “orbs” on the photo… Huh? Isn’t that just dust? Or maybe a light refraction of some sort? I really didn’t think much of it. So I wrote back to all of them and said just about that. They all wrote back and asked if there were orbs in any other photo I took of that day? Yes, in one. When I compared the two shots, I see that one photo with orbs is inside with Norma, and one is facing outside with Tess (Aladdin’s fav).
I tried to justify why there would be dust spots or light refraction orbs in two completely different angles and light sources, yet there were no orbs in any other photo of that day. Hmmmmm. So, I don’t know.
But, I’d like to think that it was Aladdin, checking in and sending some love and light to his old buddy, Norma. And, Norma did recover… So, if Aladdin helped, I’m grateful. Truth to tell, I feel Aladdin in the barn all the time. Perhaps I just want to feel him there, because I loved him so much and miss him all the time.
Or, maybe I associate the barn with Aladdin because he was the only horse who ever resided in the barn. I still walk to the barn and expect to see him emerging from his bedroom and venturing to the feed room as he anticipates my approach.
But, alas, if he does come to visit, he is in the shape of an orb that only my digital camera can see. Pity.
Norma Jean and the mysterious orbs.
Taken the same day… Orbs around Tess (and Wrigley), Aladdin’s fav.
HORSE GHOST STORIES I found many horse ghost stories (or is it ghost horse stories…?). I will compile those and relay them in another post. I actually have one of my own from Loma Rica Racetrack. Stay Tuned! Do you have a ghost horse story?? If so, do tell!
FOR THE HORSES! Every donation counts! Click image to see the new pieces!
Click to see the new pieces for the horses!
I saw a pair of black ghost horses at my moms when I was 16/17, twice. Appalachian foothills, known Indian lands, so they could’ve been from any time except the present. They left no footprints on soft morning ground. They were playing on the hill out front of the house and they were solid black. So beautiful. Idk why they showed themselves to me but so glad I was there.
The ghost horse photo that Rich Kanan was in at The Chickamauga Battlefield can be concluded in this way
.
The Dark entity of an alleged ghost horse behind him is actually a bent over bush or young tree. The real ghostly apparition in located in that bush and is shown to be a balding man in what appears to be a dark suit and sporting a mustache. If you look closely at this area of the photo you can plainly see this in the image. See also HauntedAmericatours story on Rich Kanan and his ghostly adventures on other battlefields.
And the one see through horse can easily happen with a slow shutter speed. I had a camera that made lots of images like that.
Most are smoke, breath, dust, glare…only one with real possibility is the one from the battlefield.
The first photo is from a friend who adopted a very special horse named (ironically) Spirit from us (Alaqua Animal Refuge). We all grieved when we heard the news that he had crossed over and knew how much the owner loved him. I whole-heartedly believe that this was Spirit coming back to let her know he was okay and watching over the other horses she now cares for. I am proud to say that she has become “one of us” and started her own organization to save horses in need.
Love and miss you, Spirit!
I just seen one a few minutes ago. I seen it run down my fence line and disappear. My colt seen it too. It made no sound as it moved and it was to fast to catch on camera. Very strange but awesome at the same time.
well last winter i was up the stables late at night to bed down my mare, about half past nine i reckon, well i was just going into the outside hay barn to get a shovel and in front of me blocking my way through was this huge horse rear end, thinking that someone musst have got out i went to get a headcollar,, when i came back the horse had gone so thinking it must have wandered off i went round the whole yard checking all the stables were properly bolted and all the horses were where they should be, then thinking maybe it had wandered in from somewhere else i searched round the whole yard, but all the gates were shut and there was nowhere for a horse to get in or out , and there was no horse anywhere, finally having convinced myself that everyone was where they were supposed to be and bolted in safe and no random horse was wandering around i went home, at home i was thinking and this horse must have been huge judging from the rear end, i had not thought about it at the time but it was higher than my head and real wide it filled the walkway, there are no horses around the area that size, so the next day i was speaking to the yard owner, she said yeah many ppl had seen them, the stables used to be the old stables for the draught horses that worked the farm, the hay barn was where there was a yard where they would stand to have the harnesses on or off, this one was still waiting after all those years to finish the working day.
i don’t know if you will post this but i do have a ghost horse story but not a photo(i saw and heard myself), i’m sorry but i’m only 12 and i don’t know why but i can hear ghosts, and i’m not crazy. okay so i live on a horse farm so yes i have seen lots of horses pass. but this one night i was feeding our fillies and i put the bucket down to pet Silver and i saw a brown flash behind her, i think it was the ghost of joker because he was that exact shade of brown. the strange thing is when all the fillies were in the barn i heard and saw that flash of brown again, and joker was loved to death and i think if it was him that he wanted to play. he had a specific spot on the hill he liked to lay(he was buried there) and when i went up there to grab the feed tub all of a sudden there was a print of like when he laid down, i’m sorry but i said oh lord, ran, and told my grandma. she believes in ghost so she said it was probably him. another instance is when i was walking the field, we use to have a blind horse who would come when called and rub your shoulder to show she was ready. i decided to test to see if ghosts are real, so i softly called her name and i heard galloping, the thing is there were no horses outside, and a few seconds later i felt something rub my shoulder so i turned around and the strangest thing happened, i saw her. she was see-through but i saw her and when i put my hand by her nose i couldn’t feel her breath. that was a few months ago, but still now and then i can hear and feel the presence of one of the horses following me.
Great blog. I’ve been following for sometime now and told others about it as well. :-)
There is a story out of Florida about a ghost horse. Apparently, people often see an apparition of a horse while driving on a back rural road called Celery Road. The story goes that an old farmer buried his horse on his farm and that’s the one that is seen at night by passerby.
There is an illustration to go with this story that I’m hoping will be sent to me so I can post it. It’s not an actual picture, but it’s still cool.
I think all the photos can be explained. The one with the pinto looks to be a double exposure. Orbs seems to be just dust particles. However, I DO believe the spirits of horses who have passed hang around. I’m sure Aladdin hangs in your barn, simply to be near you. After we lost Cody, I heard him whinny and Rose (QH) saw him soon after he passed. I sure of it. I feel Sweetheart’s presence all the time and she passed in Aug of this year. They don’t really leave us if they were loved.
orbs that’s dust that’s what it looks like. The other photos are good! The so called orbs are not spirits any good photographer who has years of experience will tell u dust . lolol not spirits barns ,houses, the great out doors is filled with particles floating and depending on how close they are and how reflective they are . Check the front of your lens u will see dust!