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Horse-Men (Horse Body; Human Face)

J

Justin_Anstey

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http://binky.paragon.co.uk/paranormal-az/Para_H.html

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One evening in 1994, the husband of Nicky Knott was driving home in King's Lynn, Norfolk, when he encountered a terrifying beast that had the body of a horse -- but the face of a man! Badly frightened, Knott sped away. In 1966, an identical monstrosity appeared in the road just ahead of a car being driven by Margaret Johnson, travelling near Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. It blocked the path for almost two minutes, before abruptly vanishing.
 
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interesting.. maybe this is where the ledgends such as pan etc come from.. i however doubt that there is a half man half beast running around... more like its something to do with the human mind that drives us to imagine such beasts
 
Did you ever read a poem entitled 'the Howler' about a dog with a human face?
 
As this article in New Scientist shows, belief in animal-men is very old indeed:

Animal-headed humans appear in earliest art

Leigh Dayton

Paintings of mythical animal-human hybrids are among the oldest surviving art ever produced. New research suggests that minotaurs, satyrs, the werewolves beloved of Hollywood and even Egypt's animal-headed gods are latecomers to the art scene compared with the "therianthropes" carved by the earliest artists on bone and painted on stone...

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991590

Link is dead. See later post (below) about the full content.

'Therianthrope'- wow, I learned a new word!
 
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"The body of a horse with the face of a man!"
This needs clarification. Was it a normal sort of horse with a human face on the front of a horse-shaped head? Or did it have a human-shaped head sprouting out of its neck? Or what?
I suspect that what both these people saw was a vaguely horse-shaped animal with a vaguely human-shaped head. Which makes me think of llamas. Llamas can be charming and friendly beasts. They can also be aggressive, stubborn and none too bright - go into their field and they will come straight up to you and try to push you bodily out. I can well imagine one of them standing in the middle of a road refusing to be impressed by a car and staring haughtily down its (rather human-shaped) nose at the frightened driver.
 
Oh, no! We're on Llamas again! To all the mysteries of the world come down to llamas???
 
this is sort of connected... the whole human/animal hybrid thing being a part of the history of thought i mean.
anyone ever wondered why talking animals are so popular? i mean, they're a staple of ckildrens' stories, almost more common than humans, and usually with no reference at all to there being anything unusual about the postman being a cat or whatever. does this point to some sort of connection in the subconscious? if so what? a historical/cultural memory or just a psychological blip?
 
These two encounters are related in a bit more detail in Shuker, "From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings." Just a BIT more detail, but worth checking out.
 
But how can anyone see a horse with a man's face by mistake??

Human and horse heads are totally different in shape.

Unless that video of 'Where's your Head At" by Basement Jaxx is not really clever computer-aided filming but the real thing??

Carole
 
I live in Drogheda and can verify the horse-with-a-man's-face story. I remember reading it in the local newspaper when I was about 10 (c.1983). As I recall it happened to an engaged couple. The report (scared the crap out of me!) told how the couple's car cut out on a dark country lane, after which the entity appeared on the dark road in front of them. It appeared to be an ordinary horse, but when it stomped its front legs up on the bonnet and thrust its face to the windscreen they saw, to their horror, its human head. It screamed in at them for a couple of minutes before disappearing. They drove to the local hospital where they were treated for nervous shock.

Legend has it that in penal times the priest in that area visited the local landlord to appeal for more lenient treatment of his parishoners. He rode on horseback and his dog accompanied. The story goes that the landlord ordered his men to seize the priest, and a struggle ensued during which the horse stamped it's hooves on a window sill and the dog left its paw print on a window pane of the landlord's house. Apparently they are still there to this day (its private property). Anyway, all three were beheaded and this is said to be the origin of the horse-man.
I've never heard of any other sighting of the horse-man other than the one mentioned above, and also never heard the legend of the beheaded priest until after the report was published.

I've since looked in vain in the local library for the newspaper report. Thanks Justin, for the original post containing the woman's name - I can investigate further now...
 
I second my proposition that Hospitaller write an article for FT...!
 
Dog-headed men, Man-headed horses... we live in a stranger country than we give credit to. These critters could definitely rival Mothman if given a decent agent...

Human-headed horses are present, in Celtic coinage, which suggests they have a long heritage.

Another thought I had is could these creatures be linked to horse-demons of Irish myth? (Maybe they choose the Norfolk Broads for their holidays...)

Btw, I like the llama suggestion, but isn't that a bit of a phantom fishmonger/weather balloon kinda answer?!
 
hospitaller said:
It appeared to be an ordinary horse, but when it stomped its front legs up on the bonnet and thrust its face to the windscreen they saw, to their horror, its human head. It screamed in at them for a couple of minutes before disappearing.
Click to expand...
Stiull sounds to me like somebody's panicky perception of a llama - trying to head-butt a car is just the sort of stupid thing they might try. Which, of course, leaves the interesting question of just how did a llama appear on an Irish country road in 1983?
 
Some of the smaller zoos, were going broke & being sold up a couple of years later in '85 or 6, Annasdotirr.

I can remember about this time, a "long stay" psychiatric hospital being given a lama for it's pet corner, from such a source. Yes! I know, it's a daft 'pet', but they do say that there are more out than in!!!!!!!!!

I would also suspect that a lama might be considered an 'easy' creature for a travelling circus & so may have featured in an escape & recapture!!!!

Anything in between, could be denied!!!!!!
 
No, I'm not convinced, I can't see how a llama could be mistaken for a human faced creature. I can believe there are some at large in the countryside, though.

Carole
 
I third rynners vote about hospitaller, we need more Irish Forteana.

Looking at a llama head on the face does appear a little humanlike. Ve really need to interrrogate - sorry interview - ze couple conzerned.
 
There's an evil Scottish water spirit called a nucklavee that can change shape© It's comes in the form of a half man half horse©

Can also look like a beautiful pony when required to entice its victim on to its back©
Then it dashes back into the water in its true form of a skinless, black blooded, flippered monster© Drowning the rider in the process©

It takes pleasure in terrifying lonely travellers as well©
 
nuckelavee/kelpie

y'know,
you're quite right© I couldn't find my `A Dictionary of Fairies,' by Katharine Briggs, last night© I've conflated the nuckelavee and the kelpie into one©

Anyway their both wicked water spirits from Scotland© Perhaps they're all related?
 
They are almost certainly related, and I believe there are welsh equivalents as well.

Incidentally, pod: why are you copywriting every third word?
 
According to the fairy dictionary there are several waterhorse spirits:

The Aughisky, Irish sea going variety

Each Uisge, Scottish sea going variety

Cabyll-Ushtey, Manx sea going variety

Glastyn, also Manx© Very handsome
in human form©

The Kelpie, Scottish fresh water variety©

There are probably more©

They're all shape changers and ferocious flesh eaters, who'll drag you under water, drown and eat you, if they get the chance© They also enjoy frightening the bejeezus out of the unwary©

Full stops:
I hope I'm not still copyrighting everything© I'm using Mozilla 0©9©5 under windoze for a browser© I had trouble after I tried to upload an avatar gif© Maybe it's the Javascript©
 
I thought I'd read a similar account from elsewhere. A search brought me instead to an extract from Revelation:


The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.

-- Revelations 9: 7-11

PS I didn't see anyone mention the Centaurs of Classical Mythology. A lot of our modern ghosts (particularly those encountered late at night on our highways) strongly resemble other elemental characters of Greek Mythology - the nymphs, nyads, dryads, and so forth. So, is it so very remarkable that people might just see creatures from the same pantheon that resemble centaurs?
 
The fact that there is a local legend relating to the beastie interests me; I wonder when it dates from precisely? It does have an oddly symbolic note to it, don't you think? Man, horse and dog, beheaded and a symbol left behind. It has the ring of something ritualistic to me, but I could be imagining it. Perhaps the legend is an attempt to lend logic and explanation to the utterly inexplicable?


Incidentally, the Loch Ness monster is clearly a swimming llama.
Likewise, the Roswell object has now been revealed as a crashed llama. I rang the USAF for comment. But they put the phone down.
 
I recommend someone straps a Regan mask on a llama and lets it loose. It would be interesting to hear the eye-witness testimony. Of course, being able to mimic the phenomenon doesn't make it any less possible.

Did anyone mention these human-headed beasts spitting profusely? I surely think that would come up if a llama was involved... unless, of course, it was wearing a mask.
 
Funny you should say that...

DanHigginbottom said:
Incidentally, the Loch Ness monster is clearly a swimming llama.
Click to expand...


I have a copy of The Scots Magazine (June 1990 - 'Was It The Monster?' by L. McP. Fordyce, pp.269-272) that has an article about a sighting of the creature he had with his wife around 1932. It crossed their path on the Foyers section of road along the eastern shore of the Loch. Rather than it being an aquatic creature, he described it as a large creature with legs, a long neck and tail, and a shaggy coat - which put him in general mind of a camel. The artist's reconstruction - now you mention it - in fact appears more like a llama than a camel, or a plesiosaur. He recommended a search of the mountains above the loch rather than the loch itself.
 
Ah yes, but we still have to prove llamas exist. I personally don't believe in llamas.
 
Horsemen

Someone further back asked for more Irish contributions. So just to let you know that there are llamas in County Louth (where the horse/man was seen), but I dunno if they were present at the time of the sighting. North of Dundalk, just on the border, is a small field with shetland ponies and donkeys, and also a couple of llamas. Spotted these while passing on the bus and thought I imagined it, but have checked again since and they are there - looks like the place could be a sanctuary or the like.
Any reports of the horse/man I have seen mention nothing about it attacking the car or spitting - just that it stood in the road and turned around and looked at the people in the car, terrifying them and they then sped off.
 
Oh they do exist. I've seen 'em. Thousands of em. Sweeping majestically across the altiplano.

They've even got mates. In the shape of alpacas and vicuanas.

Not to mention the Dalai...

...I'll get me coat.

:D

Incidentally, in certain areas of South America, they still put a llama foetus in the foundations of a new house. For luck.
 
Here's a posh word

5. Weird Words: Therianthrope /,TI@rIan'TrQp/
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A being that is part animal, part human.

The usual meaning of the adjective "therianthropic" is of a god
that is represented as combining animal and human forms. The best known examples are the animal-headed gods of ancient Egypt, such as Bast (with the head of a cat) or Anubis (whose head was that of a jackal). The noun is rarer, but it appeared recently in reports of investigations into ancient cave art. The researchers found that some showed hybrid beings, such as cat-headed humans or men with the heads of antelopes. They argued these are the ancient relatives of such mythical human-animal hybrids as the minotaur (which had a man's body but a bull's head), satyr (part human, part goat), and werewolf. In the last of these, the creature exhibits its animal and human aspects serially rather than simultaneously, an extension of the usual definition, though a usage that is common online. The word combines the Greek "therion", wild animal, with "anthropos",
human being.

(From World Wide Words, <http://www.worldwidewords.org>.)
 
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