Netizens React to Riders At McDonald’s Drive-Thru Leaving Horse Poop & Endangering The Horses

By Ameera Rosli  •  15 Nov 2021 in News

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We’re all perfectly familiar with the late night need to hop in our cars and head on over to a McDonald’s drive-thru for a snack or (let’s face it) a full-fledged meal.

However, what we’re not used to seeing are horses at the drive-thru instead of the typical queue of cars.

At a McDonald’s in Cyberjaya, the owner as well as members from the horse riding centre, 3S Equestrian Cyberjaya took their horses out for a late night snack and naturally, it went viral on the internet for being an odd sight to behold.

Only in Cyberjaya. ‘Drive thru’ McD guna kuda sebab kereta dah terlalu mainstream. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/HkLhQbbtta

— Cyberjaya Info (@Twt_Cyberjaya) November 14, 2021

While the initial tweet was light-hearted, the following responses from netizens highlighted several grievances regarding the riders’ actions and the overall safety of the horses.

Many netizens berated the riders for leaving a mess at the drive-thru, riding horses on asphalt and not wearing masks.

JUICE reached out to 3S Equestrian Cyberjaya for clarification and they got back to us with their explanations.

A picture was posted by a commenter showing how they left horse manure at the lane which will definitely inconvenience other customers if not cleaned up.

Thankfully, 3S provided evidence that the rider immediately cleaned up after receiving their order thus saving the McD employees some unneeded effort.

Other than that, a netizen pointed out how walking on asphalt – with a human in tow, no less – was not good for the horses since the ground is obviously very hard and abrasive.

Horses are at risk of developing sore and bruised feet, swollen joints and muscles and shin splints when they run on hard surfaces for long periods of time.

However, according to some articles on horse riding, it is said to be alright to ride a horse on pavement at a slow, steady pace for short periods with proper horse shoes on the animal.

Other comments pointed out that since they were out at night, with cars driving around and bright lights illuminating the streets, the horses could also get spooked very easily, causing more discomfort for the gentle creatures.

In response to this, 3S clarified that members of the staff were escorting the riders in a pick-up truck behind them to ensure that everything was safe and that there would be no room for accidents.

Another complaint highlighted how the riders were all not wearing masks at the drive-thru as they interacted with the workers there which violates Covid-19 SOPs.

According to 3S, the reason why the riders were not wearing masks is because horse riding is considered a strenuous sport. Based on SOPs, if individuals are partaking in sports such as this, they are not required to wear masks.

Despite that, knowing the sensitivities during the pandemic, all of the riders had masks in their pockets for when they weren’t riding to maintain SOPs. They also kept up with social distancing and stayed a metre apart from the workers by not going indoors at all.

Lain machiemmmm orang Cyberjaya nih https://t.co/bo2bWB245n

— McDonalds Malaysia (@McDMalaysia) November 15, 2021

McDonald’s has also responded to the tweet.

It turns out, the entire rendezvous to McDonald’s was actually a birthday surprise and the riders simply wanted to make the birthday girl happy after a long, hard day at work.

With situations like these, it just goes to show how far people can take things out of context when there’s so much room for interpretation.

Check out the centre’s original Facebook post here.