A WA dairy farmer is urging McDonald’s chiefs to rethink their drive-through policy after he was refused a soft serve — for being on horseback.

Third-generation farmer Luke Ieraci, 22, spends much of his working day rounding up cattle on his trusty steed, Zara.

Last Sunday he decided to ride Zara from his Roelands home to a friend’s house 7km away in Treendale, near Australind, and on the way home stopped at McDonald’s Treendale to satisfy a craving for a soft-serve ice-cream.

Camera Icon Dairy farmer Luke Ieraci and Zara. Credit: PerthNow

But staff refused to serve him and instead told him to stop horsing around when he entered the drive-through.

“They said, ‘Sorry sir, we can’t serve you in the drive-through on a horse. It’s an animal, not a motor vehicle’. I said to them, ‘I’m pretty sure a horse is still a legitimate mode of transport, so why can’t I use the drive-through?’” Mr Ieraci said.

“Then they said, ‘We’re aware of that, but we’re thinking of the wellbeing of the horse’.

“But Zara is used to roads and traffic. She’s a very well-mannered horse with a good temperament. She was fine, and so I couldn’t see why they couldn’t serve me. A 50¢ soft-serve wouldn’t have been any skin off their nose ... . There’s not going to be many people going through on horseback.”

But a McDonald’s WA spokeswoman said only people in licensed motor vehicles were served at its drive-throughs.

“It’s a safety issue,” she said, adding the rule would not be reviewed or changed.

In 2013, employees at the chain’s Forrestfield outlet refused to hand a 71-year-old with one leg an ice-cream because she was riding a gopher.