An escaped horse in Tuen Mun sent residents’ heart rates into a gallop after they spotted the creature trotting down a local street this morning.
A video posted on the news and humor website 100Most shows the chestnut steed, which escaped from a nearby riding school, trot past an MTR light rail station as commuters waiting on the platform look on.
A man surnamed Wu told Apple Daily that he was taking a cab at about 9am this morning along Wu Chui Road when he saw the horse canter by.
He said: “I saw it from a distance and realised it was real, there really was a horse on the road. I hadn’t seen horses escape from the riding school so I was really scared!”
Wu told the newspaper he didn’t see a saddle or anyone following the horse, and was worried it would get hit by a car.
The horse’s freedom, however, was short lived. Staff from the Tuen Mun Public Riding School found the horse outside the Butterfly Estate — a public housing estate a 10-minute walk, or five-minute trot, from the school — some 15 minutes after its escape, and took it back to the stables.
Interactions between urbanites and animals have been on the rise recently as the city grapples with not only an ongoing wild boar crisis, but also periodic incursions by wild cattle in some of its more far-flung corners.
The Tuen Mun Public Riding School, run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, first opened in 1994, and is said to be one of the largest public riding schools in the city.
The Jockey Club confirmed to Coconuts HK via email that the horse escaped from the riding school by breaking the fence while turned out in a paddock, that no one was hurt in the incident and that the horse was found to be unharmed following a check up with the vet.*
*This story has been updated with a response from the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
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