DETROIT, Mich. — The Detroit Department of Transportation says a widely shared video of two horses being led through one of its buses is genuine, and the agency has opened an investigation into how it happened.
The roughly 45-second clip shows handlers guiding the pair of horses onto a bus stopped near 7 Mile and Strasburg Street on the city’s east side. The animals walk in through the front doors, move down the aisle and step back out through the middle doors a few seconds later.
The video first went up online on Nov. 9 and spread quickly across social media.
DDOT said on Nov. 11 that letting the horses aboard ran against its policy and could make riders feel unsafe or uncomfortable. The department said it is taking steps to deal with the incident.
Under federal disability law, the agency allows service animals on its buses, but only animals trained to do specific work for a rider with a disability. Those animals must stay under their handler’s control, may not take a seat and must sit on the floor or in the rider’s lap. The horses did not qualify, the department said.
A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said the city has identified the owner of the horses and is looking into the matter, though officials did not release a name or say why the animals were put on the bus.
Jordan Williams, a co-founder of Urban City Cowboys, a Detroit group that offers horseback riding and equestrian programs for kids and families, has said the horses were his. He said he came across the bus after a fundraiser where children got pony rides and talked with the driver before walking the horses on. He said the point was to show that there are urban cowboys who look like him.
Williams has also said this was not the first time his horses have ridden DDOT, naming several other routes, and he said he hopes the department takes it as a joke.
