One of the things that I've been working on is not "bumping/jolting the reader out of the story." Something like the horse thinking is semi-plausible. It's a "translation" of his thought, done by me. However, I worried that if I had the horse actually talking that it would hurt the credibility of the story. I was trying to have the horse episode be a little comic relief from the actual story, but not a different story.
Yeah, another request for more horse? I can't give anything away, but stay tuned!
I'm glad you liked him.
Yes I'm glad you kept it all believable. That is really important to keep your readers engaged!
...I am 'tuned' ;)