Fred – Michigan’s Service Horse Ambassador – Flies First Class

Fred, the mini-horse from west Michigan (full name - Freckle Butt Fred) hopped on an airplane in Grand Rapids a couple weeks ago with his handler Ronica Froese and took a trip to California. In first class. 'Cuz that's how Freckle Butt Fred rolls.

With the Department of Transportation thinking of excluding all service animals except dogs, according to Fox17Online, Ronica arranged the trip to show that a well trained service mini-horse like Fred is a viable option. She and Fred flew from Grand Rapids to Dallas and took a connecting flight to Ontario, California. After six days in sunny southern California, they returned, also connecting at DFW.

According to Ronica, “Everyone was sweet as pie, TSA was amazing. The experience was way better than I actually anticipated,” she said, while also acknowledging that some people are abusing the privilege of taking service animals on flights. “It is out of control, it’s a very abused process, there are a lot of untrained service animals on the plane that are not trained," Froese said.

Here's the story.