File image detail: Pony and cart.(Joanna Jhanda/Contra Costa Times)
A woman was impaled by the shaft of a pony cart when the animal bolted during the Fourth of July parade in Templeton.
A pony pulling a cart holding two people ran into the crowd of spectators, said a report from the San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s office. The shaft that attached the cart to the harness stabbed the thigh of a 61-year-old woman.
A witness told the Tribune that the animal — described both as a pony and a miniature horse — was spooked by a barking dog, and that the impaled woman had been holding a baby when she was knocked down.
The woman was taken to a hospital; as of Wednesday morning, the sheriff’s office had no news of her condition.
No other injuries were reported, and the parade was diverted to another street while the woman was treated.
Templeton is a community of about 8,000 people between Paso Robles and Atascadero.
Originally published at Bay Area News Group