If you live in Portland, maybe you’ve seen a man riding through the streets at night on horseback, brandishing a lightsaber. You may have thought you were hallucinating or having a peak Portland fever dream. It turns out, you were not.

We first heard about this phenomenon on Reddit, when user yeksim posted earlier this month: "Last night around 8 pm my girlfriend and I were waiting to get into the Scary Puppet Film at Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven (SE Hawthorne and 2nd Ave) when we heard what sounded like a horse galloping. We look at towards Madison and saw a person riding a horse westbound in a full-on gallop carrying what I'm pretty sure was a light saber. Anybody else see this? Did I imagine it?"

The idea that this person existed was too much to resist. It took little sleuthing and old-fashioned reporting, but we tracked the mystery rider down.

His name is Joshua Dallman. He's a regular guy -- a 36-year-old professional living in Portland -- who happens to sometimes ride his horse around town at night, carrying a custom-made lightsaber and wearing a cape.

Other times, he and his horse wear matching bandanas. Once, he dressed the horse in a fur pelt with horns. "People legitimately asked what animal she was," Dallman told us over email.

Dallman obliged us by answering some questions about his hobby. While he said he doesn't seek the spotlight, he said he's "always happy to be an ambassador for the species."

"I admit that when galloping down the middle of the street downtown full-speed at night past a crowd at a club or a bar that then starts cheering wildly, it's pretty fun," he said, "and I can feel that my horse gets a little kick out of it too."

According to Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau, there are no laws against riding a horse in the city, except that riders must obey all traffic laws.

Dallman, who has been riding horses for 10 years, said riding in the city is dangerous but that both he and Kelsey-Belle, a 5-year-old Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino stabled in Hillsboro, love the challenges a city presents.

"It's much more interesting in the city than out on some monotonous trail," Dallman said.

It can also present problems. "I ride bareback," Dallman said, "so if my horse spooks or stops suddenly, I can be tossed on concrete at 25 mph, like riding a motorcycle with no helmet."

"Night visibility is poor and people don't expect a horse downtown so they're not watching for it," Dallman added, "hence the lightsaber, which acts as a safety beacon as much as a prop."

There's also the occasional odd situation that arises with a horse in an urban environment. Once, Dallman said, he stopped at Rich's Cigar Store during a ride and tied Kelsey up outside. "As I was paying, a man from the street bolted in and asked, 'Is that your horse?'"

"I said yes, and the man replied, 'She's standing out there alone freely with no rope!'" Dallman continued. "I ran outside and sure enough she broke her rein and was just standing there on the sidewalk in downtown Portland without anyone attending her, and not tied up, just hanging out and able to walk anywhere if she wanted to."

Luckily, Kelsey stayed put.

Mostly, Dallman and Kelsey ride the streets alone. Dallman said they never take the same route twice and rides can last between two and eight hours. Dallman says his favorite areas are close-in Southeast between Martin Luther King Boulevard and the Willamette River, "where 'Old Portland' still exists and feels post-apocalyptic by horseback."

Once, said Dallman, he filled his backpack with granola bars and he and Kelsey passed them out to homeless people.

Dallman was once a Zoobomber, so occasionally, the man and horse join bike rides. "Kelsey loves riding with a big group of 100 bicycles because she goes into 'herd mode' with them," Dallman said, "and of course loves to lead the pack."

Dallman thinks Portland is the perfect place for urban horseback riding. And he wouldn't mind if you wanted to join him. "I would kill to have a posse to urban trail ride with," he said. "Live your dreams. What's crazy isn't that crazy. If you want to ride a horse in the city, then take riding lessons, buy a horse, then trailer them into the city and do it."

"If other people out there with horses want to start a monthly urban group ride," he added, "get in touch with me."

Sure, a pack of urban horseback riders would be a little less mysterious than one man with a lightsaber. But somehow, it might be even more Portland.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker