From Staff Reports

Irfan Sukhera and his horse, Patrick, have a special relationship.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Sukhera said as he kissed and stroked the horse's muzzle Friday afternoon. "You know I love you."

With Patrick safely back within the confines of his car lot, Sukhera reflected on the wild adventure that brought together his horse, a police officer, and a cab driver Friday morning.

Just after 9 a.m., Sukhera got in his van at the car lot he runs with his son headed to the gas station.

And when Sukhera drove off, Patrick followed.

"I saw the horse going out the gate," Sukhera Jr. said from the office at EZ Cars in Pensacola . "But I was with a customer and couldn't get outside in time to stop him."

That's when Pensacola Police Officer Hank Wells got involved.

"The horse had somehow gotten loose and was just walking around," said Wells, who found the horse near Q and Brainerd streets about the same time as a passing cab driver.

The cab driver just so happened to have a bucket of hay and a rope in his car that he and Wells used to coral the horse.

"He's really friendly," Sukhera said. "Anyone can just walk up and pet him, we won't bite."

Sukhera was given citations for animal roaming at large and animal nuisance.

Sukhera said he bought the horse his daughter, Hiba, when she was young and that he had brought the horse to his car lot property Friday morning.

Normally, he said, he keeps the horse on a piece of land he owns in Molino. But an ongoing dispute with a neighbor of that property has found Sukhera's gate being opened in the early morning hours.

"There's a lot of traffic up there and I was afraid he would get out and get hit at night," Sukhera said. "I brought him here while I look for a place to board him."