Metro

Police horse makes a quick getaway from cops

A saddled police horse out to “stirrup’’ trouble ran loose through Midtown Sunday evening.

“I saw a police horse galloping without an officer on it and a cop car chasing after it,” said Kathryn Chen, 23, who looked on in amazement as she strolled along West 49th Street while the misadventure unfolded.

“It might have been scared. It was galloping really fast. It was crazy. It was hilarious and crazy. Everybody on the street was like, ‘What the heck?’ ”

She said it took five minutes for the cops to catch the escapee, which galloped nearly 10 blocks.

Chen’s boyfriend, Mike Wang, 25, said, “Nothing really fazes you in New York. Looking back, though, it was definitely crazy.

“You see everything in New York, but you don’t often see a horse galloping down the street.”

A hot-dog vendor at 44th Street and Sixth Avenue, who asked not to be identified said, “It was a very, very nervous black horse.

“I saw a woman jump out of the way of the horse. I ran to a pay phone and called 911.’’

The Wild West Side show started at around 6 p.m. just after the mounted officer pulled to the side of the street to let a little girl pet his steed about a half-block north of West 42nd Street.

He pulled back into the avenue, but at West 44th Street, the horse, apparently spooked by a garbage truck behind it, bolted and the officer lost his balance.

He tried but failed to to hold on.

The horse hoofed it north on Sixth Avenue before turning west onto 49th Street, leaving gouges in the pavement. It kept galloping west to 10th Avenue before cops corralled it.

The horse was fine and no pedestrians were injured.

One officer who witnessed the chase, said it’s not a usual occurrence.

“Officers and their horses are like partners,” he said at the scene. “They’re very well-treated.”