A northern Oklahoma teen girl encounters a tall hairy bipedal creature while riding her horse at night. The incident has haunted her for over 45 years ever since.
"I appreciate the way you allow people to get this off their chest. My name is not important. I'm now a 64-year-old woman, but this happened to me when I was almost 17. I was born and raised in the country. Mom stayed at home and Dad worked in the oil fields.
We lived in northern Oklahoma near the Kansas line. I had a younger sister who was a girly girl, but I was a tomboy through and through. I was the son my dad never had. He couldn't keep me inside the house. I spent my days on my horse riding many miles each day. It was my heaven on Earth. Many times I'd take an after-dark ride looking at the stars and enjoying the solitude.
This particular evening I decided last minute to grab my horse and take off, probably to get away from my sister or some other teenager angst at the time. It wasn't unusual for me you just grab a blanket only, no saddle, and a halter with the head rope fashioned into the reins and take off. I always had to put a bit in my horse's mouth. Off I went in a tank top, pair of cut-off jeans low top Converse tennis shoes, and normal summer attire. I had several dogs following along and maybe a barn cat or two for a way before they would head back to the barn.
It was dark, but maybe half a moon and hardly a cloud in the sky, and down in the low 80s after a high 90-degree day. I had it out on my favorite six-mile route that took me into the pastures where a small creek snaked through the sand hills. All along the creek were large trees and bushes taking advantage of the wet areas. I had my horse in a slow rocking trot with her head down half asleep, dogs panting along beside us and me with my head tilted back watching an unusually active night of falling stars.
All of a sudden my horse threw up her head and did one of those 'dead in their tracks' stops that leave you up around their ears. I noticed her ears were straight up and staring at something. She did a quick back step or two and was shivering as if she was cold. I glanced down at my dogs and they too were looking intently off toward the creek. That's when I looked back between my horse's ears right where she was staring and I saw a movement as I watched a large hair-covered animal walking upright came into view about 40 feet away. I couldn't breathe. I was so scared I knew I was seeing something that didn't exist. It stopped in an opening between the trees and squared up to me staring intently in my direction. It was huge with large shoulders and long arms almost to its knees in the moonlight. I could see its hair was on the thin side as I could see dark skin on it in several places. It stood swaying slowly back and forth looking at me. It lifted its head as if smelling me and stared at me blinking its large eyes slowly. I thought it was a gorilla, cross with a caveman.
About that time one of the smaller dogs growled at the sight and my horse did one of those nervous snorts they do. The creature turned its body back towards the creek and in just a step or two looked back at me and was gone out of sight. I sat there with tears running down my cheeks finally taking a few deep breaths. I turned my horse the three miles or so back towards home and off we went as fast as we could go followed by a couple dogs and passing a couple who had already headed back that way. We hit the barn door and I slid up my horse and collapsed, my legs weak with fear. I closed the doors and locked them, ran to the other end of the barn, slid the big doors shut, and suited the bar to keep them from moving. I sat there frozen with fear. Being a teenage girl that loved her horse more than I can explain in words, I was determined to keep her safe. I worried that the creature would come to get her or one of the dogs, so I sat in the barn the rest of the night.
At daylight, I noticed the blanket I used to ride bareback was nowhere to be found. I had lost it somewhere along the creek. I didn't say anything to my parents, probably out of fear they would not let me ride alone anymore or not believe me and laugh at my story. I slept in the barn every night for weeks and feared that thing was coming to harm my animals. Every little noise would send my heart beating into overdrive. My 410 gauge shotgun was loaded and ready to protect my horse and dogs.
One day, with the sun shining bright, I headed towards the creek area. We were all nervous the closer we got to the spot where I had seen this creature. I spotted my blanket where I'd nearly fallen off my horse. I quietly slipped off of her, threw the blanket on her back, grabbed a handful of mane, and jumped back on. A few steps at a time we neared the creek until we were in the spot we had seen the creature. Since this was sand hills there were no tracks only large depressed areas in the sand. The dogs are sniffing each area all the while shivering like they were ready to cut and run at a moment's notice.
At that time I'd seen a branch that was near the creature's head when I've seen it and it was only a couple inches above its head while I stared at it. I rode my horse to the branch and it was at least six inches above my head while sitting on a horse. It was 15 hands high and I'm 5'8". I have no idea how tall it was but it was enormous.
After a few weeks, I stopped sleeping in the barn. I would often check on her several times a night. I kept that up for several years until she passed away, taking a piece of my heart with her. This has haunted me for the rest of my life and not a day goes by that I don't think of it and what I saw that night. I've hunted and fished all of my life but I'm never at ease in the woods. I know what's out there. I feel like I have knowledge of something that other folks don't. I've married and divorced and had a couple children who I have never allowed to be out of my sight for any extended time. Unlike me, they never jumped on a horse and left for hours just riding to wherever their hearts desired. A couple of times while hunting I've felt a wave of fear and nausea come over me that I hot-footed back to my vehicle with it all in my head or was I sensing something there.
Anyway, it was a life-changing experience that has haunted me to this day. People find me hard to get close to and I have no patience with stupidity. I now live in a city. But in the evening I can close my eyes and feel my horse underneath me, with the smells of the woods and go back to a time before I knew that monsters are real. I'll take this to my grave wondering what that was and why I had to see it and live it and live with the knowledge that they do exist."
Transcribed source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msv15DIfQCc
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