PLEASANT PRAIRIE -- Drivers in Pleasant Prairie had to share the road with an unusual suspect Friday morning, a stray horse.
Pleasant Prairie police started getting dozens of calls into their dispatch center shortly before 8:00 a.m. They were all for the same thing, a stray horse was running free on the roadway while drivers were making their morning commutes.
"It was definitely interesting," said officer Ben Arzikovic who was called to respond. "In this job, you get different calls but I wasn't expecting to get a call to where a horse was on the job."
Arzikovic followed as the big brown beauty galloped down Highway 165 at a slow and steady pace.
"The horse wasn't stopping," Arzikovic said.
The horse paid no attention to the patrol vehicles that decided to join, or the lengthy line of drivers behind them.
"The horse was very difficult to get control of," Arzikovic said. "I have no experience or history with horses neither did my partner."
After about 20 minutes of riding beside the horse it was time to make a move. Arzikovic veered gently to get it to trot off the road.
"I'm not going to say I was scared, but definitely a larger animal coming toward you like that, I moved," he said.
Arikovic says thankfully, a Good Samaritan joined their efforts with a harness and some feed for convincing.
"Eventually, we just told her to get up ahead of us so she could get ahead of the horse and eventually she corralled it," he said.
"The horse is now back with its rightful owner. It was safely returned without a scratch.
