A horse ran into a bar. That's the joke.

We’ve all heard the many jokes about the horse that walked into a bar, but what about the horse that ran through a bar? That happened in France just over a week ago on Sept. 24, with footage of the incident becoming widespread Monday:

Here’s more on what happened from Reuters:

A young racehorse trained near the world-famous Château de Chantilly escaped her handler and bolted for the nearest sports betting bar, sending panicked customers scampering for safety.

According to newspaper Ouest-France, trainer Jean-Marie Beguignem said he lost control of the horse as he led her from a stable to the racecourse, located about 50km (31.1 miles) to the north of Paris. He said the horse had a penchant for running away.

“There was quite a panic. I still can’t quite believe it happened,” bar owner Stephane Jasmin told Reuters.

The Château de Chantilly (located about 30 miles north of Paris) is well-known for its Great Stables, the largest stables in Europe, which also include the Living Museum of the Horse. And it has an attached Chantilly Racecourse. It’s also been famed for appearances in everything from the James Bond film A View To A Kill to the video game Battlefield 1, and has featured Pink Floyd concerts, Ronaldo’s wedding and more. But this is the first time it seems to have come up in relation to a horse walking (or, neigh, running) into a bar. Sadly, there’s no word on if the horse was able to place a bet, or if it chose itself to win, place or show.

Amazingly, this wasn’t even the only horse and bar story from the past week. The Sir Henry Newbolt pub in Bilston (a small West Midlands town in England) also saw a regular bring his horse in, as per the Mirror:

A regular of the Sir Henry Newbolt in Bilston is believed to have shepherded his animal through the front doors of the High Street pub on Friday evening.

In footage taken inside the pub, staff can be heard asking the man – thought to be called Tommy – to leave the Wetherspoons.

But delighted drinkers soon swarmed around the horse, taking selfies and even offering the animal drinks.

Here’s video of that:

It should also be noted that fans of the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders have a longstanding tradition of getting a horse into hotels, bars and even bank offices during Grey Cup week. But all of those horses tend to be a little more under control than the one that showed up in France. After all, the joke’s about a horse walking into a bar, not galloping into it.

[Reuters]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.