Grab your 10-gallon hat and scream ‘YEE-HAW, Y’ALL!’, because the rodeo was in Meath at the weekend.
More specifically, it was at the Navan racecourse before the 15:00 on Saturday was set to kick off as Himmah went rogue.
The horse bucked jockey Chris Hayes off before exiting the course through the barrier. It went straight for Big Bad Sal, knocking jockey Shane Foley off his ride.
Remarkably, Hayes got back on the horse (see what we did there?) and actually completed the race, crossing the line in fourth place.
A couple of reprobates spotted at @NavanRacecourse! pic.twitter.com/uQ6ciDBlsP
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 20, 2017
The incident went viral, reaching the highest status a story of its kind could possibly reach… the ‘and finally…’ TV news segment.
Melbourne’s 7 news ran a lighthearted package on the incident sold as ‘the Irish race horse who wanted no part of the three o’clock race’. The feature contained perhaps the most interesting pronunciation of ‘Navan’ you’re ever likely to hear from the Aussie anchor.
A race horse in Ireland clearly had no interest in running in the 3-o'clock race #7News pic.twitter.com/WFlHVfkcx2
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) May 21, 2017
As for Hayes, well, he saw the humorous side of it.
The man’s made of tough stuff.
Ground at navan was easy good 😂🤠#buried pic.twitter.com/RDW3uMlSNC
— Chris Hayes (@chrishayes24) May 20, 2017
