So then all of us had a really nice chat about whose horse it might be (the theory is the horse was recently sold by a different neighbour and was maybe trying to go home). Also cattle, space junk, gardening, and a sprinkling of gossip.
All the while, it was lightly, pleasantly raining, the cows were mooing, and there were distant flashes of lightning on the horizon in several directions as it got gradually darker. Icing on the cake: on the walk home we saw the first fireflies of the summer!