The Fechenheim district of Frankfurt, Germany, has a local celebrity that just so happens to be a horse.
A little Arabian mare has become known to town locals and can often be found walking around the neighborhood. The horse is named Jenny and she has been doing this for the past 14 years.
Jenny takes herself for walks because there is nobody else around to do it for her.
One of Jenny’s owners is an 80-year-old man named Werner Weischedel. Due to his age, Werner is no longer able to ride his horse, but he opens the gates to Jenny’s yard every morning.
Jenny then takes herself for her daily walk around town.
Jenny seems happy to trot off all by her lonesome. She loves to explore the railways, roadways, and back alleys in the district. She certainly seems to know her way around town!
For more than a decade now, Jenny has become a fixture around the Fechenheim district of Frankfurt. She’s a part of the town and community!
Local residents all know Jenny and are not surprised to see a horse walking herself around town. They look forward to seeing her on her daily strolls!
Keith Anderson took to Facebook to write about Jenny:
“She enjoys greeting all of the familiar faces along the way, and she stops and gets treats and pettings from some of her favorite humans. The locals treat her like a celebrity and happily clean up after her.”
Jenny has a friendly note attached to her while she goes on her walks.
This is just in case a tourist or someone from out of town should stumble upon her and think that she ran away from her owner.
“My name is Jenny, I didn’t run away. I’m just going for a walk. Thank you.”
Her owners also put their phone number on the note just in case. Jenny doesn’t seem to cause any problems in town, however, and locals have grown accustomed to her.
Despite going for her walks unsupervised, Jenny doesn’t cause any problems. One would think a loose horse would cause some chaos, but that’s just not the case with Jenny.
Jenny’s walks in town didn’t always come with fanfare, however.
The local police say they used to receive up to 20 calls per day from people not familiar with Jenny’s routine. Now that the horse has become a local celebrity, however, those calls have decreased to roughly once per week.
Even the tram drivers in town have grown accustomed to seeing Jenny on her walks. They have taken to making sure they slow down anytime she wanders too close to the tracks.
Local residents are even encouraged to show Jenny some affection.
This might be why she seems to enjoy her walks in town so much. In fact, Jenny has been given no restrictions from her owners about what she can do or where she can go on her walks. She has total freedom!
“It makes us so happy to see Jenny, we miss her when we don’t pass her on our walks,” quipped 61-year-old Gaby Marxen.
In the below photo, which was taken before the global pandemic, Jenny can be seen leaning into a stroller to greet a young resident of the town.
Before the global pandemic, Jenny had more freedom to run around town than she currently does, however. With social distancing policies in place, the free-roaming horse now plays a therapeutic role for local residents.
Due to social distancing, many of the town’s residents are going with less physical affection from humans. There’s nothing wrong with hugging a horse, though!
Jenny is happy to help those who just feel like they need some physical contact.
“People seem to notice her more because they have more time. A lot of passers-by stroke her, maybe because they are missing some human contact,” said Anna, Werner’s husband.
It does not appear as though Jenny has suffered any ill-effects from all the physical contact with the town’s residents. The 25-year-old’ s health seems to be quite good.
You could even say she’s as healthy as a horse!
Jenny doesn’t seem to be slowing down or easing off her free-roaming lifestyle either. She doesn’t really have any reason to do so. Her ability to just wander around town is pretty enviable!
Jenny’s current routine is much different than it used to be. Her owners used to ride both her and another horse named Charlie through the town.
Anna and Werner would ride Jenny and Charlie while two white shepherd dogs ran alongside all 4 of them.
“We went through Fechenheim as a white caravan. For almost 15 years,” said Werner.
Unfortunately, a few years ago Charlie passed away, leaving Jenny without her best friend. Even with her owners not able to join her, and her companion having passed away, Jenny still insists on going for her walks, even if she takes them all by herself.
Jenny’s walks everyday end around 4 PM. Werner takes his electric scooter and catches up with her. Then they both head home for dinner.
You can watch Jenny go on her leisurely strolls in the below video.
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