This is a story I ask my parents, two very discerning,
objective, realistic, intelligent people, to tell over and
over again. It is of a true, unexplained experience which
happened to them and several others with them that
night.
When I was small, around 1967, my parents owned a
guest ranch in Pennsylvania and took clients out on
overnight pack trips on horseback in the Laurel
Mountains.
One one such trip, they were taking a familiar route
near the Rolling Rock Country Club stables when they
heard someone exercising a horse in one of the rings.
This was, of course, quite odd because it was rather
late at night and there was no outdoor lighting. So, they
decided to ride closer to see who it was.
As they came through the trees, they could hear the
sound of the hooves pounding on the hardened ground
of the ring. The horse was loping around at a steady
pace. However, my parents and their guests could not
see a rider--or a horse. They could only see the glow of
a lit cigarette going around the ring in conjunction with
the sounds of the hooves, bobbing up and down in
time with the stride just as it would in a rider's mouth
as he rode along.
(My parents both assumed, at first, that their eyes were
just not discerning the shapes in the darkness. As I
said, they are very realistic people who would not even
think of something being a paranormal occurrence.)
As they rode closer, even more curious now to see who
the rider was, they heard the horse pick up speed--and
watched the cigarette go up and over the fence!
They heard the horse crash loudly through the trees on
the side of the ring furthest from them-- where they had
last seen the cigarette. My father, thinking that
someone may be hurt, knowing that through those
trees lay a steep forested hill that dropped off quite
suddenly, spurred his horse in that direction too see if
he could help.
However, when he got to the spot the horse should
have gone through, there was absolutely nothing
disturbed: no broken branches, no hoofprints, nothing.
Others in the riding party, including my mother, also
searched the area, but never found any trace.
Needless to say, they and their guests were a bit
spooked after this, but they continued on their ride and
stayed the night in the woods--a good distance from
that spot!
When my parents inquired the next day at the Club as
to whether there had been any riding accidents the
night before, or whether a horse had run off with its
rider or anything, the answers were "No."
I've often wondered if there was something in the
history of the club that might be a clue as to who this
ghostly rider might have been, or if there had been an
accident in that ring long ago. I may yet investigate it
one of these days...
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