‘There’s a Horse in My Swimming Pool’

BALTIMORE (CN) - A woman in rural Maryland "was walking through her home when she looked out the window and discovered there was a horse in her pool," and she wants the girls' boarding school from which it escaped to pay the $12,000 damage.

Barbara Andrews sued Oldfields School, of Glencoe, Md., in Baltimore County Court.

The lawsuit refers to an "affidavit & color photograph of Oldfields' horse in pool," unfortunately not attached to the 14-page filing.

Andrews says she called the school, whose property is next to hers, and its CFO seemed "relieved to hear that (the horse) had been found."

The CFO, "Mr. Hopkins," told her that the horse had jumped a fence and had been missing for several days, Andrews says in the complaint. She says he assured her "that the school would take full responsibility for the damages."

When the damage came to more than $14,000 though, Andrews says, the school balked. She says that when she told the CFO what the bill came to, "and asked what the school was planning to do about the matter, Mr. Hopkins now replied, 'Absolutely nothing.'"

Nay, neigh, 1,000 times neigh, Andrews says. She wants the school to pay for the damage. And for the runaround, she wants more than $75,000 for trespass, negligence, strict liability and violation of state animal control law.

She is represented by Paul Rouhana of Towson.

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