A WOMAN left passengers very confused after bringing a mini service horse into the first class section during a flight.
Ronia Froese was travelling to California when she took the animal with her into the cabin.
Fred the horse is specially trained to make the high-altitude trip, according to WXMI, and has been trained by Ronia.
She explained: "I paid an arm and a leg for tickets, but I did so because it was Fred’s first time and I wanted him to be comfortable. I wanted him to have the most room."
The pair flew from Grand Rapids in Michigan with a connect in Dallas, before landing in Ontario in California.
Ronia even dressed him in a sleek suit that made him look like a Lucha Libre wrestler commonly seen in Mexico, and added that despite some strange looks, everyone on board was "sweet as pie".
He has been trained through Little Horses Big Smiles, an non-profit, animal therapy training facility, and Fred even has his own Facebook page.
Ronia said that the "experience was way better than I actually anticipated."
Fred’s flying days may soon be a thing of the past, however, with the US Transportation Department recently announcing plans to tighten the laws so that only dogs actually trained to help the disabled qualify for flights.
Surprisingly, Ronia seems to agree in part — telling WXMI that the system is "out of control".
She said: "It's a very abused process — there are a lot of untrained service animals on the plane that are not trained.
"The sad part is what the DOT is looking at doing, they are looking at excluding me as a handler from taking my horse on the plane."
Ronia isn't the first passenger to bring a service horse onto a plane, with Flirty the miniature horse spotted on a flight last year.
She was so popular that the flight crew on the American Airlines plane took pictures with her.
Delta Airlines is banning emotional support animals following a rise in reported incidents.
A two-year-old girl's new service dog was banned from a flight due to its breed despite being needed to help during her seizures.
Emotional support animals are banned from flights in the UK, with only dogs allowed on board.
A version of this article was originally published by New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.
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