Horse rider refused service at drive-through

A woman says that staff at a McDonald’s drive-through refused to serve her because her “vehicle” was a horse.

Keen rider Louise Carter, 48, of Worcestershire, was watching England’s World Cup semi-final last month when she got a craving for fast food.

“Once you get your mind sorted on a Big Mac you have to have one,” she told Worcester News.

Noticing that the roads were unusually quiet due to the football match, she decided to saddle up for the short ride to nearby Malvern Shopping Park.

However, after trotting three and a half miles along the A449, when she arrived at the drive-through McDonald’s her attempt to satisfy her Big Mac craving was thwarted.

“They said ‘I can’t serve you, you are not a car’,” she said. “I never thought I’d have some jobsworth saying that. I know I’m not a vehicle.”

Carter later posted on Facebook that she and her steed had taken their custom to a nearby Caffe Nero for a “a lovely toastie and a latte”.

A McDonald’s spokesman confirmed that employees had correctly followed company policy by refusing service. “Our drive-thru lanes are specifically designed for roadworthy motor vehicles only and are therefore not suitable for horses,” he said.

In March this year, a male rider encountered a similar reception when he tried to place an order on horseback at a McDonald’s drive-through in Suffolk.

The unidentified man was told to tie up his horse and order inside the restaurant “Once he got his coffee, he got back on the horse and just trotted off across the grass with his latte,” an eyewitness told the BBC.