Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

An elderly farmer has replaced the back seats of his clapped-out Fiat Punto with bales of hay so that he could transport a Shetland pony home as a companion for his heartbroken horse.

According to local media, stunned onlookers alerted the police when they spotted the pony on the back seat of the farmer’s cramped Fiat Punto as he drove around Asten, a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria.

A police spokesman confirmed: “During the traffic stop, officers saw there was a pony in the car.”

Pictures Credit: CEN

The Shetland pony had just been purchased by the 72-year-old farmer as a companion for his heart-broken horse that had refused to eat since recently losing its partner.

The unnamed OAP had to rip out the back seats of his car and replace them with bales of hay.

The man then secured the pony with rope and put it on top of the hay.

The police spokesman quipped: “He had extra horsepower in the rear.”

The cops reported the incident to the Linz County authorities and informed the animal transport inspector of Upper Austria, according to local media.

Surprisingly, both authorities determined that the transport was lawful as the pony was well secured.

The OAP was allowed to continue his journey to a shelter in Unterach where his horse was waiting for his new companion to arrive.

According to the farmer, who wished to remain anonymous, one of his horses had recently died from a heart attack.

The horse’s mate was reportedly so brokenhearted that it even refused to eat.

Therefore, the considerate farmer bought the Shetland pony named Nelke for the down-in-the-dumps horse.

He told local media that as he did not have a trailer, he saw no other possibility than to remove the back seats from his small Fiat.