Chapter 42 : Paranormal experiences at my ranch

So my grandpa has this ranch about 25 miles East of Payson Arizona, for those in AZ it's between Haigler Creek and the 260. It's very secluded but the land is good for grazing. I spend a lot of time running Jersey Cattle on the range. Every night one of us rides out to check on the cattle in the field, and to check fence line for holes in the wire.

A few days ago I was riding out to check on the herd at about 1:30 am, and I kept hearing rustling in the tree line running along the fence perimeter. Figured it was coyotes or squirrels, I see a lot of them up there. It went away every 10-15 mins and then I could hear it again. The second time I heard it, I was off my horse and walking him to a little water trough. The cows were about 150-200 yards away just within my view with the moonlight. I heard the rustling again but this time it was heavy. Me and my horse Vegas both looked up at the same time, wondering what the fuck we were hearing. At this point I came to the eerie realization that whatever was out there was tracking me and Vegas, didn't seem so interested in the cows.

So In an attempt to scare it off, I got back on my horse and grabbed my whip and uncoiled it (I don't use it on animals I only use it to make a loud noise to move cattle) and cracked it a few times rather then using my pistol. The rustling stopped and the forest was dead quiet once more. Not thinking much about it I went back to count the head. I marked 38 heads, all the cows were there. So I started my way back to the house. I was about 3 1/2 miles away, it's a bit of a trail ride to get back. It was about 10 mins of silence until I heard the rustling again, at this point I was getting pissed. I figured it was some little dumb ass coyote thinking we were gonna lead him somewhere. So i called my grandpa on my radio (there's zero service out there what so ever) and told him I was gonna fire my gun so he didn't get worried. So I reached down and pulled my Revolver from my side ( for all you guys who like firearms, it's a uberti replica colt 45 peacemaker, chambered .45 colt) and I fired one round into the air. The rustling stopped as the shot rang out through the woods and mountains, my ears rang and the smell of gunpowder filled my nose as the smoke settled.

After I calmed Vegas down I started riding back. Only for the rustling to come back 5 minutes later. I started getting really nervous at this point because usually coyotes run away when they get scared by a loud noise. I didn't have a flash light on me because I'm dumb and forgot, so I used my lame ass iPhone flashlight and dismounted. I slowly walked to the tree line where I heard the rustling as I had my gun out, ready for an animal to jump at me or something. I flashed my light around though clearings in the trees. And to my right I heard rustling about 100 feet away and turned over and to my surprise and confusion, I saw a black silhouette of a horse run across the trail. I immediately thought "shit, is that one of our horses? Is that someone else's horse?" So I rode over to where I saw the horse, shaking with anxiety, I looked and was confused as the how a horse even ran out of and into the forest because it was so thick with shrubbery. And when I looked back behind me to start riding back, I stopped frozen in fear as I got the chills, I dropped my gun and heard the sound of it hitting the ground echo through the woods, because in front of me, about 50 feet away, was a silhouette of a man wearing a flat brim hat and appeared to have chaps on, I picked up my gun and aimed at the figure, and it was gone. I got back on Vegas and rode like the wind to get out of there. Constantly looking behind me in fear of it following. I made it back and told my grandpa, he was trying to calm me down and said he's had some weird experiences to.