Our Tamara Lindstrom has the story of an animal on the lam who wanted a taste of the green.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

"He was just eating the grass, just as happy as could be," said barton, owner of Maple Hill Golf Club in Marathon. "Wasn't startled at all when Bob picked him up down behind the ninth green."

That's where workers found a 400 pound miniature horse. A little underweight, but otherwise healthy and very friendly.

"We've never had a horse on the course yet. Several cows, but a horse, no," Barton said. "He was underfed. He would come right up, you could pet him, talk to him, and wasn't afraid of anything."

When no one came looking for the wayward stallion, state police asked around. But nobody knew of the missing miniature, so the Cortland Community SPCA took the little guy in.

"I don't see a whole bunch of these miniatures, although there are several throughout the county. Never on a golf course," said SPCA Chief Investigator William Carr. "The horse people that we use believe that he's used to breed because he's still unneutered. And you can sell these types of horses for riding. Small children can ride them, or they can pull small carts and stuff like that."

By Thursday afternoon, the owner did turn up.

"He asked if we saw a brown horse," Barton said. "And I showed him a picture on my cell phone and he said yes, that's my horse."

An Amish farmer living five miles away said the horse belonged to his children, and went missing Monday. The SPCA will follow up with the owner.

"We just want to address some minor concerns and see how the horse got lose," Carr said.

Meanwhile, this little horse is happy just tending to his big appetite.

Although it is illegal for an unneutered male horse to roam on someone else's property, the SPCA does not expect the owner of this horse to face any charges.