A black horse walking through the snow has inadvertently become a viral optical illusion, with the stallion cutting such a sharp silhouette against the white background that it is difficult to tell whether the majestic animal is moving toward or away from the camera runs.
Alesia Carrie is the owner of Rudnik, a horse with a roan-patterned coat, and the couple is based in Kamloops, British Columbia.
In January, Alesia shared a 40-second video of Rudnik taking a walk some distance away from her in a field, with a thick layer of fresh snow on the ground.
As Alesia noted in the overlay text, her horse seemed “so black in the snow that you can’t tell whether he’s walking toward you or away from you.”
Rudnik, a black horse from Kamloops, British Columbia, sent the internet for a loop with an innocent walk in the snow
His owner, Alesia Carrie, captured him trotting across a snowy landscape in a 40-second video, with the clip inadvertently becoming a viral optical illusion on TikTok
No one could agree on whether Rudnik was walking toward or away from the camera, the silhouette of his head and tail blending seamlessly with that of his body.
Alesia noted of the clip that Rudnik is “so black in the snow that you can’t tell if he’s walking towards you or away from you”
In the video, it is virtually impossible to tell with certainty whether Rudnik is trotting diagonally toward or away from Alesia, with the outline of his head and tail blending seamlessly with that of his torso and flank.
Furthermore, the natural light in the clip, whether from cloud cover or the time of day, is dim and gray, erasing any traces of shadows that would otherwise have given away its changing position in the landscape.
Furthermore, he is far enough away from Alesia that it cannot be determined whether he becomes smaller or larger as he moves in the video.
In the final seconds of the footage, Rudnik pauses and stands majestically, gazing at his snow-covered dominion.
The post has since gone viral on TikTok, racking up more than 16 million views and more than 2.2 million likes — and has even been reshared on LADBible.
More than 11,000 viewers used the comments in Alesia’s original post to debate which direction Rudnik had actually strolled in real life.
Thousands of people responded to the comments, admitting they were baffled by the ambiguous image
“I clearly had something against you and then my brain turned,” wrote one confident and confused fan.
“I thought, yeah, you can… wait what,” a second echoed.
“It literally kept going back and forth at me.. that was weird,” a third agreed.
“Oh my god, I can literally see both of them?!?!?!?!” a fourth panicked.
“I can flip the horse, it’s like that brain puzzle in real life,” a fifth commented.
But Alesia put all discussion to rest in a follow-up comment to her original post.
Alesia finally revealed the truth: Rudnik had ‘ran away’ from her for the entire clip
“Spoiler * he walks away from me for the entire clip,” she declared.
‘I could have sworn he walked towards me. That’s wild,” one awestruck voyeur admitted.
“I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS,” someone else exclaimed.
And, with Alesia’s admission, at least one smug sibling was proven right on the matter: “I showed it to my brother and we had a little argument about the direction and showing him this comment was pure satisfaction.”