Ghost stories are always fascinating. Although most of the time they aren't believable, they can always be relied on to send a shiver down your spine. The best ghost stories for horse-crazy girls are ones about horses - just like the ones below. Read on if you're ready to be rattled!
The Horse Ghost of Grand Central Station Back in the 1880s, there was a female racehorse named Maud S Trotter. She was also known as "Queen of the Turf", because at the time, she held the record for the fastest mile. Thousands of owners would've been ecstatic to buy her, but the one who outbid them all was the insanely rich and insanely bearded William Henry Vanderbilt - an eighteenth century Bill Gates (unlike Bill Gates, he hadn't accomplished anything important in his life other than being the guy everyone else was jealous of).
During her life, Maud S. made the harness racing Hall of Fame. She died of a heart attack in 1900. By the time of her passing, Maud S. was famous and many of her fans were saddened by her demise. The obituary of Maud S. Trotter made the 12th page of the New York Times.
For two thousand years, not many people have thought of Maud S., save for the Windmill company named after her. It wasn't until her ghost was spotted, roaming New York's Grand Central Station, that she raced her way back into the public eye. Rumor has it that Maud was spotted walking in front of the Oyster Bar. Since the spotting, this place has been a spot on New York's ghost tour, but Maud S. was never photographed. While many tourists claim to have heard her snort or seen her walking through the station, no one can really be sure if this rumor is true. After all, who knows how much coffee these tourists and travelers were going through when they hallucinated a racehorse two thousand years dead.
The White Horse of Clumly The Orkney islands are a group of islands belonging to Scotland. There is land on one of these islands known as Clumly. It's a small town that not many people visit. The reason it is so empty? Some people say it is the harsh weather. Others say it is the bad location. Others know the truth - it's the legend of the White Horse of Clumly.
On certain nights, it is said that a ghostly white "horse o' Clumly" and its phantom rider come to reenact the events of a dark night, long ago.
On this night, two men fought over the affections of a fair lady. When she rejected both of them, they fought until one man was killed. The killer hid the body of the other man in a stable until darkness fell. Then, he saddled a white horse, laid the body on the saddle, hopped on, and rode off into the night. There was a high wall separating the town of Clumsy from the rest of the island, and he was able to persuade the horse to jump over it without jostling the body out of place. They continued on their way. When he came to a cliff, he threw the dead body off into the sea. For a few seconds, he sat on the horse, catching his breath, until a translucent image of the man he killed formed from the sea foam and, before his eyes, began to approach.
Terrified, the killer kicked the white horse until it reached a gallop and urged it farther and farther from the ghost of his victim. When he saw the Clumly wall coming into view, he was confident that his horse could make the leap. They'd already done it once. The white horse, though, was exhausted and running much too fast to plan the approach. It tried to jump over the wall, but the wall was too high and the horse didn't make it. He crashed through the wall, crumbling it, only to die when he hit the ground. His rider was thrown and died too.
While the ghosts of these two men and the valiant white horse have never again appeared, the residents of Clumly have never been able to repair the wall. Every time someone attempts to rebuild the section that the white horse fell through, the stones fall out of place, leaving the wall crumbled once again. To this day, the wall has a gap.
The Native American Ghost Wind Stallions The legend of the Ghost Wind stallions was passed down through generations, traced back to the Nez Pierce and Flat Head Indians.
Old cowboy folklore also passes around this story of the Ghost Wind stallions. It centers around a wild mustang stallion named "Wind Drinker". He was white in color but described as being fiery. He was described as being extremely intelligent, agile, beautiful, and had such smooth gaits that he appeared to glide over the plains. Everyone wanted him to be theirs. In 1879, a reward was offered to anyone who could catch him.
The Indians called him the ghost horse, winged steed of the prairies. He was seen roaming the lands, including Mexico, Oklahoma, and even South Canada. Many people tried to capture him, but the one who succeeded happened to be a cattleman, or vaquero, who caught the Wind Drinker after a group of professional mustangers tried and failed. The vaquero tied the white stallion to a stake and didn't feed or water him until the horse eventually died. After his death, people still claimed to see him, his white shadow gliding through the mist near the Rio Grande.
Another rumor began. There had to be multiple ghost horses, since the Wind Drinker kept appearing well into the the mid 1900s. Even today, ranchers in the American West and parts of Mexico claim to see him - a white, foggy image of a stallion, wild and free, unable to be caught and trailed by a shadow that looks like a white flame. Most people agree that this foggy horse that seems to trail from the wisps of the wind is the ghost of the Wind Drinker, haunting the plains, looking for food and water. -Emma
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