Cookie
We never planned on having a horse. Cookie came to us when we moved into our new house. We can only assume the previous owners had left him behind. Our new house had a small pasture with a wooden fence and an old barn at the end of the pasture. We knew of course knew this, but we didn’t expect a white and golden brown Appaloosa horse to come walking out of the barn on Move-In Day. I made several attempts to contact the previous owners, but I was unable to reach them. I spoke with authorities on what to do and they suggested sending Cookie to a farm or sanctuary, but something told me I shouldn’t. I would feel bad moving him from what he knows as his home. My husband was reluctant but since there was already a barn and pasture, he agreed on keeping Cookie. We didn’t know Cookie’s actual name, so my 9-year-old son suggested it. I made other suggestions, but he insisted. So, Cookie it was. Though I’d never had a horse before, I worked with them some in vet tech school. So, I pulled out my textbooks on large animal husbandry and brushed up on my horse knowledge. Cookie was very thin when we first came across him. I suspected the previous owners had left him so they wouldn’t have the responsibility of caring for him. Such assholes. After a couple of months, Cookie was looking much healthier and beginning to bond with us. His stall was cleaned regularly, and I made sure to clean his hooves daily. We had a vet come check him out. Despite being on the thinner side, the vet said he seemed relatively healthy. Our two sons enjoyed feeding him carrots and watching him walk around the pasture. Cookie even seemed to strike up a friendship with our dog Lacey. She would even squeeze under the fence and lay in the pasture with him. All was well. Then one day I was outside filling up Cookie’s water trough. He had one in the barn and another by the gate where you enter the pasture. The gate was right next to our driveway and from our driveway you could see the main road. It was just Cookie and I. Our boys were with my MIL for the day and my husband had gone out to pick up our lunch. Lacey likes to go for car rides so my husband had taken her along. I had just taken Cookie his lunch, so he was in the barn enjoying his meal. I was just about done filling the trough when I heard a voice call out “Hey there, pretty lady!”. I looked up the driveway towards the main road and there was a man walking by. There were other houses along the main road so I figured he was walking to one of them. I could tell by looking at him that he had to have been drunk or under influence if you know what I mean. I’d say he was probably a couple years older than me (I’m 33) but he was dressed like he was trying to look 25. I rolled my eyes and continued about my business, but instead of taking the hint and walking on by, he stopped and began to yell things at me. He was saying things like “Oh, you think you’re better than me?!” and ranting about how he “hated stuck up bitches”. Things like that. I turned to walk away but then he quickly started to walk towards me. My house was a bit further down the driveway and I had left my phone inside (I know, I’m still kicking myself for that), so I opened the gate and entered the pasture thinking he wouldn’t follow me in there (stupid, I know). I could also get to my house a little quicker by cutting across the pasture as well. I could still hear him yelling behind me and I turned and looked back, and this asshole had jumped the gate and followed me in! Now I knew I was in trouble. I sped up my walking, looking straight ahead at my house. I didn’t want to run because I’m not the fastest and I knew he'd run too if I did. I was so focused on what was happening that I’d forgotten all about Cookie. As I was just about to the other side of the pasture, I could hear the guy getting closer, and then suddenly I heard galloping hooves thundering towards us. I heard the guy yell “What the fuck?!” and the sound of Cookie whinnying loudly. I spun around and Cookie was reared up, front legs kicking angrily at this guy. The guy had fallen to the ground on his side, desperately covering his face with his arms. “Please!” he shouted. “Call him off! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”. The guy rolled and squiggled around on the ground, desperate to avoid having his limbs or head trampled on. I yelled at him to be still and he balled up and laid with his arms over his head. He didn’t dare move. Cookie stood over him, snorting with anger. If you've never seen or heard an angry horse, they're fucking terrifying! Just as I started to process what had just happened, my husband came pulling into the driveway. He saw us in the pasture, stopped the car, and came running over to the gate asking what was going on. I yelled for him to call the police, as this guy had tried to attack me. The police came and I explained what happened, making sure to tell them that Cookie was just protecting me. I didn’t want Cookie to be put down because of that dickhead. Luckily, my husband had installed security cameras around our property, one of which faced the pasture. In the video we could see the guy reaching into his pocket as he came up behind me. The cops said they had found a knife on him. He was taken to jail and my husband and I both praised Cookie, stroking his face and giving him extra carrots. The officer I spoke to said they’d be in touch if they needed any more information. The next morning, I received a call from said officer. The guy was found dead in his cell. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing as the officer told me the guy’s head was crushed in and it appeared as if he’d been mauled about the face and torso. Mauled? What the fuck! His head looked as if it had been trampled… The officer sounded very unnerved when he next told me that there were hoofprints in the blood on the floor, and that several officers claimed to have heard a horse "scream". “Wait, what?!” was all I could muster. How was that possible? I mean, how would a large animal like that get into the station unnoticed? And how would it get into the cell? The officer told me there wasn’t anything on the security cameras, and that the camera facing his cell had gone fuzzy and they couldn’t make anything out on it. “Surely you’re not implying that my horse just strolled into the station and trampled the guy without anyone seeing anything?!” I said incredulously. “No, of course not, we’ve just never seen anything like this” he replied, though I could still hear in voice that he was uneasy. Frightened even. Almost as if he were trying to convince himself. I thanked him for calling, he said they'd be in touch, and I hung up. As I stood there trying to process what I just heard, my husband hurried in from outside. “Hey babe, I think something’s wrong with Cookie. His teeth look different and he has blood all over his hooves and mouth”.