Thank you for pointing out the Obvious.
But you are suggesting that MB might very well hurt those horses for some reason… you are suggesting that this is a commonplace occurrence that surely must happen All. The. Time. You are suggesting that because some crime novel had a horse incident in it that LK was too terrified to move her horses who had rides and stalls arranged for them… because… wait.
That does not make sense.
She was worried that they might be harmed so she opted to leave them where they might be harmed even though she had other options - just so she could finish the bastard? Does that sound right?
It really is NOT hard to move 6 horses in one day - contrary to all the lame excuses. You just need friends to help. Or even family. When a friend’s farm was about to flood, we got together with her family and moved 26 horses in one afternoon… it can be done.