Outdoor cats are known to wander, and dogs expected to get loose – but in Frankfurt, Germany’s Fechenheim district they have grown accustomed to a different kind of ‘outdoor pet’ – an Arabian mare named Jenny. The effervescent white horse strolls lazily through the streets each morning, on the same route, with no handler in sight. For the people not familiar with the animal she wears a card that reads: “I’m called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk. Thanks.”
Jenny has been taking this walk alone for the past 14-years, because her owner, 79-year-old Werner Weischedel can no longer ride her. Every morning the old man opens his gates and she trods along the paths they used to take together.
Jenny the Arabian mare has been walking the streets of Frankfurt, Germany alone for the past 14-years
Before Jenny was a solo traveler she was part of a “caravan.” Weischedel told FNP, “We used to have a second mare, Charlie, and a second white shepherd. There we went as a white caravan through Fechenheim. Almost 15 years.” The “we” he refers to is him and his wife Anna. Now their riding group is down to Jenny and their German shepherd Evita, who sometimes joins her for part of her daily jaunts.
Jenny walks her route 8 times a day before returning home for the afternoons for lunch – just like clockwork. Maybe that’s because, according to her owner, she has a “clock in her stomach” and “knows exactly when there is food at home.
