Man facing charges for punching Minneapolis Police horse

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A 22-year-old man is facing misdemeanor charges after Minneapolis police say he punched a police patrol horse in Minneapolis over the weekend.

“For someone to actually come up and strike one of our horses is fairly rare,” said Corey Schmidt, Minneapolis Police spokesman. 

It’s not the sort of crime anyone really expects, but in downtown Minnneapolis outside Pizza Luce at 2 a.m., punching a police horse suddenly became a real life thing.

“As he ran by he struck the back of the horse, thankfully the horse didn’t react,” said Schmidt.

According to Minneapolis Police, the suspect is 22-year-old Jacob Solberg. Investigators say Solberg punched 12-year-old mare “Indy” in the rear end.

“It starts off as a misdemeanor and if there is injury to the horse or the rider it rises up to a felony,” said Schmidt.

Motivation for the horse punch remains a bit murky. Minneapolis police say they’ve had no prior contact with Solberg.

As for Indy, who outside of work prefers running, eating and generally being a kind creature, seems incapable of inciting violence.

“They are just like police officers and go through training to get a little more accustom to those situations,” said Schmidt.