People confused over which direction horse is facing in baffling optical illusion

The best optical illusions are the ones that leave you scratching your head even once the answer is revealed.

And a picture of a horse has left people positively bewildered as no one can work out if it's facing frontwards or backwards - but can you solve it?

The image shows the silhouette of a horse against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset. Upon closer look, it's unclear if the animal is looking towards the sunset or the cameraman.

The so-called optical illusion was shared last year by wildlife photographer Jim while he was on a Friday morning stroll near the English town of Chesterfield.

Alongside the picture, he wrote: "What a stunning sunrise this morning, the question is though is the horse looking towards me or away? Answer is in a while but I love these as the more you look the more unsure you become."

Thousands of people interacted with the post, with most people absolutely stumped at what the real answer was.

One user posted: "Beautiful. One minute horse is looking towards the sunrise, look again and it's looking towards the camera, awesome." Another wrote: "That's difficult. I first thought away but now I'm not so sure."

While another said: "Wow that's amazing it could be either. I think away but very had to tell."

Jim, who didn't want to reveal his real name, added: "People are literally split down the middle. Half the people think its looking one way and the half think the other. It's very popular.

"You become more unsure of your answer the longer that you look at it. I've had thousands interacting with it and commenting. No one really knows. It's been more popular than I expected.

"With the sunrise with the orange sky, whatever you put in front of it becomes a silhouette. The area where I go is fantastic for sunrises.

"It's at a stables and they’ve got 15 or 20 horses that look over Chesterfield. Horse's and sunrises go really well together.

"You've got to get them in the right angle. I walked along so that the sun was in the right position. He was a friendly little guy."

Jim later revealed that the horse is facing towards the camera.

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