If you were flying from Chicago to Omaha yesterday, you may have noticed a miniature horse on your flight or in the terminal. Just another day on American Airlines.
Flirty is not an emotional support animal, even though the Department of Transportation has recently ruled that airlines must continue to permit miniature horses onboard as emotional service animals.
Instead, Flirty is a service animal, specially trained to help guide a woman who is allergic to dogs.
Well, that’s at least what Flirty’s owner, Abrea Hensley, claims when she trots onto an aircraft or gallops into an airport. Hensley also admits to loving horses.
She told a local NBC affiliate:
There was some sexual abuse when I was a kid…
I was not able to really leave the house much. Usually I will end up completely shut down sitting in a corner somewhere having a hysterical sobbing attack.
She was also caught in an active shooter incident many years ago.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds exactly like an emotional support animal to me. Hensely claims Flirty helps with mobility assistance.
Hensley asks people not to pet her miniature horse, but does maintain an Instagram account for her and boasts that she is potty trained.
She won’t go in a store — she actually hates pooping in public. She would rather wait until we get home.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
And she also flies and was apparently a good passenger on an American Eagle flight from Chicago to Omaha, operated by Envoy. AA Stews posted the following image on Instagram.
(Apparently the flight attendant in the blue sweater did not get the memo about not petting the horse).
CONCLUSION
I’m so jaded on this issue that all I see is insanity; a woman who loves horses and cooked up a way to bring her little horse in places where it does not belong. So rather than dig myself deeper into a ditch, I’ll just stop here and let Flirty bask in all her attention.
(H/T: View from the Wing)
…lovely…
What a bunch of HORSE[redacted by admin]!!!
This whole support animal nonsense is totally out of hand.
Right there with you on these animals – in many – but obviously not all – cases they are the product of our selfish privileged culture. There are plenty of non-allergic dog breeds she could have chosen.
I agree. I posted a comment regarding how allergic I am to horses and susceptible to asthma attacks when I am exposed to them (and I certainly would be in this case given the air circulation systems in airplanes) and I was verbally attacked and told that’s what allergy meds and asthma inhalers are for. I literally wear a mask now on every plane I take because of the crazy animal therapy situation. Cats do me in too!
An animal can be a service animal AND provide emotional support as well. If it is well behaved, I assume they are legitimate. Most animals on flights are better behaved than children and some adults. Yes, you are jaded. Oh well…
“Trained to help guide a woman who is allergic to dogs.“
Is she vision impaired? Directionally challenged? It’s just one photo but the first phot does not show any guidance being provided by the horse.
“Flirty helps with mobility assistance.”
Then she needs a scooter because that horse is in no way able to help the her mobility. She can’t ride or even lean on the horse.
There are dogs that don’t cause allergic reactions such as Wheaton Terriers.
Total insanity. Lunacy. Can’t bring a sandwich through TSA, a horse, OK. Where does the mind numbing goofiness end?
Hey, if trump’s doctor claims he’s 239 lbs and of sound mind why not a horse? This stuff has gotten so out of whack it’s almost funny. It’s enough for me to need one.
The President’s weight and this woman taking a horse onto a passenger airplane are quite unrelated.
Next she will be taking a 17 hand purebred on the plane with her! NONSENSE!!?
Is it me or this kind of stuff only happens in the USA?
Maybe not only but an awful lot of it does. We’ve taken to venerating people with needs, be they real or imagined.
AFAIK the US is the only country with that allows emotional animals on board aircrafts.
USA people are crazy. Not just the horse owner, but policy makers, rules enforcer, and finally, the society itself. Crazy, hypocrite, and also stupid.
So it helps her mobility issues by having her lead it around?
How exactly do you fit the thing on a full regional jet?
This whole “emotional support animal is a bunch of horse sheet. If you have such emotional problems…should you be flying at all? We have become a society of allowing the minority to rule the majority. What hapoens if the plane “bounces” with rough winds and this horse ends up hurting someone? Honestly, this whole endeavor is dangerous. Reports of emotional support dogs biting passengers. Animals are not meant to be on olanes. Far more people with impaired immune systems travel (elderly & young children) If a pig, dog, or horse poops on the plane, everyone will inhale micro organisms that can’t be avoided. This puts many folks health at risk. The premise should always be….”the needs of one don’t outweigh the needs of many”!
Sorry, but as much as a horse has nothing to do on a plane, horse manure is rather clean and has no micro organisms in it for you to inhale. In fact, it doesn’t even smell much. Please get your facts right, rather than spewing nonsense.
Get your facts straight. Didn’t you see he mentioned pigs and dogs also?
For her own sake, she should try to wean off the horse. Maybe carry a stuffed animal? Then graduate to a pillow? Then move on to a small towel? Then move on to a piece of tissue paper.
What about emotional support for the poor bloody horse ?
Can you imagine being dragged around by a fat cow with some sort of attention disorder. Horses are sensitive creatures who need specialist care.
Amen!
Maybe the next time she should just ride the horse to Omaha? There is enough horsecrap to put up with just flying AA on any given day. This insanity has to stop.
Stupid passenger.
A service animal has not just training but advanced training which includes assisting in emergency situations–emotional support animals require no training at all.
People who are intolerant of animals ate usually the same type of person who is intolerant of ANYone who is different.
Grow up, be tolerant and kind and learn to worry about your own problems as opposed to projecting your problems (and blaming) others.
Gregory your an IDIOT~~!!!!
The amount of intolerance shown by the author and the commentors is appalling. This horse is not an emotional support animal. He is a certified support animal who is trained to help with legitimate medical issues, including support for seizures. The woman is allergic to dogs. The horse has a longer life span. He’s been approved by her doctors, the government, and the airlines. As evidenced by the picture – posted by airline staff – he was a great traveler even on a regional aircraft. He was obviously better behaved than it seems any of you would be. Unless you are only rude and I’ll mannered keyboard warriors and hide your prejudices in real life.
It’s absurd that an airline must give an extra seat to a horse for a woman who loves horses and conveniently happens to be “allergic” to dogs, yet seems to walk just fine ahead of her horse in the pictures and video above. I call horse****…
I totally agree with Mathew and Kate,,,one both of them comments. I am a survivor of gang rape. I used to be a victim , but .with a very long and painful journey threw hell, I am now a survivor. I do have many scars that are in the form of panic anxiety attack’s and panic anxiety induced seizures and a very damaged spine. I do have a trained and certified service dog, I was unable to leave the house before I got my dog ,who is trained to lick my face to calm me down and bring me out of a seizure and to stand between me and someone I am frightened of when we are out she also helps me up when. I fall and helps me walk with a special harness that she wear also she gets things of of store shelves for me and picks up things that. I drop. The women clams sexual abuse. I do not no the story of her abuse but. I do know from my own that. I do not want to be on a plane,,not in a closed in place surrounded by strange men. For me that would be very traumatic. For her it seems to be not so traumatic more enjoyable and attention seeking. When you are traumatized. At least from my experience you do not seek out attention. This woman even has her own Instagram page, really, no attention seeking there. I feel that she is abusing the system that was set in place to help those who truly need it. I even saw that people are using cats, goats, pigs and even turkeys and snakes. That is so wrong and makes it so hard for those of us who are truly in need of a service animal. I did tons of research on service animals before I found my life saving dog. Those other animals can never do or give the kind of love and help a dog does, they are just not capable. None of them except a dog can help with picking up items or licking your face to pull you out of a seizure. And. I would never take my dog on a plane it is not fair to the dog or other passengers. These people should be stopped for cruelty to animals and cruelty to people with true needs and to citizens who have the right to sit on a plane with out animals that do not belong in that environment it is just not natural for those types of animals to be on planes. Lastly emotional support animals are a farce. Service animals are trained and certified. The woman with the horse and Instagram page should be ashamed of putting her beloved horse through the trauma of a plane trip. Buy a car and drive .
I don’t know your name, but I can tell you that you are a very brave lady.
Respect….!
So, did the animal, trained to be a service animal, bother you? Did the woman who needs it…bother you? Were you denied something because of one of them? Or, did you need an easy punching bag to make you feel better?
She needs a service animal for mobility assistance. She PROBABLY needs an emotional support animal to deal with all the cruel comments random a-holes such as yourself have meted out as self-appointed moderators of the planet.
Jeez…get over yourself. All of you. Too ignorant to do the required reading, but super fast to be wrong. Yep…sounds like the America I know.
Do you know what, I don’t care that you’re disgusted with me.
I see the treatment of this horse as abuse, horses are not suited to being a comfort blanket for humans. I love my horse, but I would no more put her through the stress of flying than strap a parachute on her and ask her to jump.
I’m sorry the woman has a problem, but there has to be another way.
I agree with you. These people have no clue what they are talking about. I also think it’s funny that they are going on about the extra seat the horse is taking up. How do you know she didn’t pay for that extra seat for the horse? She has a right to take that horse on the plane if the airlines allow it. All this is covered under the American’s Disability Act.
In all fairness to the horse, he was undoubtedly less trouble than some of the human passengers; especially, passengers who get on the plane stinking from body odor, or passengers who get on the plane drunk, and demand more booze. Then, when they are refused service, they attack the flight attendants, and other passengers. Incidentally, I agree with Chris L. regarding the problem with bringing sandwiches on the plane. I checked the website of the TSA, and could not find any prohibition against bringing sandwiches, or other food on board the plane (excluding water). Yet, when I tried to board a flight at the John Glenn Airport, in Columbus, OH, the TSA started harassing me about Jello chocolate pudding, which was in a wrapped, marked container. Then, they also started bothering me about some deli sandwiches with mustard, and ran a scanner through them; what nonsense! I took a roast beef sandwich through the Frankfurt Airport, in Germany, on a flight to Israel. There, they have very strict screening. Yet, they didn’t harass me about the roast beef sandwiches. They looked at it, and that was it.
I just feel so sorry for that poor little horse. In Germany, where I am living, it is a violation of of the animal protection law to keep a horse without at least one conspecifics and I am glad about that. If she would really love horses, that lady who probably suffers under “attention disorder” would not be as selfish as she is. She also uses all the attantion she gets for selling all kinds of shirts on her homepage.
Horses dont belong onto planes and also not in little backyard without any gras. They belong on a field with other horses. I really hope for Flirty that her owner will be soon realizing the cruelty she is doing to that poor little thing.
I agree Christine.
I was just hoping the horse would have taken the biggest, stinky dump on the owners feet.
The thing that bothers me most about this is what might happen during an emergency landing. Don’t horses get spooked by loud noises? Example: I was on a regional plane flying from Iowa to Ohio years ago when suddenly there was a loud pop and the plane tilted to the right about 30 degrees, then dove straight down. Turns out the secondary navigation system failed and the pilots were trying hard to keep the plane straight and on course. We had to divert for an emergency landing in Chicago and it was very tense but thank God, we landed safely and no one was hurt.
I just cannot imagine trying to deal with a panicked animal during that situation. What if the horse bites or kicks someone? And during a water landing, how does the horse exit the plane? Does it know where the closest emergency exit is, in case its owner is unconscious? The whole situation is ludicrous.
Look at the cow leading the horse!
I’m leaving this post just to show how crude you are…
I’m reading the Comments, and I am usually pretty unforgiving re: social peccadillos – but considering the level of absolute lunacy occurring “out there” – this one is harmless. Whatever the woman’s issues are – she’s not hurting any-one, and neither is Flirty. Service dogs run along the same size as a miniature horse. So what’s the problem? The horse is trained to refrain from defecating in public spaces, consoles the owner with whatever her demons are, and generates a reaction of surprise and delight in most NORMAL Humans.
The lost of you sound like miserable, selfish, joyless Grinches, resentful of an innocent ANIMAL. Never trust people who don’t like animals – they are genetic defective spiteful mutants.
And Matthew, Princess – get over yourself. You sound JEA<LOUS of the attention Flirty has received. You are nowhere near as special as you think you are, Precious. Most people would definitely choose Flirty, as a flight companion, over self important for no reason what so ever YOU
Now Sashay away!
Hard to believe especially when I have to place my three pound puppy in cargo hold,
Yes, I’m getting a Miniature Schnauzer puppy in Oct and it must be placed in cargo hold for the flight from Tucson, AZ to Ft Lauderdale, FL. because she will be traveling alone.!
I am so afraid she won’t be able to handle the stress.