In Britain, there's a long waiting list of British animal lovers hoping to take in aging police horses. Once retired, the horses aren't supposed to be ridden again.
Unless, it seems, you're Rebekah Brooks, the former tabloid editor and chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, or David Cameron, the man who would become Britain's prime minister.
The ongoing inquiry into the relationship between the police and news media has uncovered a new scandal: Scotland Yard appears to have loaned Brooks a police horse back in 2008.
Brooks, the former Murdoch executive at the heart of the phone hacking and bribery scandal roiling Britain, didn't just jump the queue — she also rode the horse, called Raisa, before returning the steed, which has since died, two years later.
And, last week, at an emergency European Union summit in Brussels, Cameron was forced to end days of speculation and qualified denials to admit that he, too, had ridden Raisa — before becoming prime minister, and in the company of Charlie Brooks, a fellow Old Etonian and Rebekah Brooks' husband.
"I am very sorry to hear that Raisa is no longer with us," Cameron said. "And I think should probably conclude that I don't think I'll be getting back into the saddle anytime soon."
Britain's political satirists haven't had this much fun since someone leaked untrue allegations that another Conservative prime minister, John Major, tucked his shirt into his underpants.
"It is quite rarely that something so juicy falls into your lap like this," political cartoonist Steve Bell said to the BBC.
Bell drew a cartoon depicting Rupert Murdoch riding Cameron horsey-style and holding Brooks' severed head on his lap.
But most damaging to Cameron's image isn't the Murdoch connection, Bell says. It's the reminder that the prime minister, who likes to paint himself as a regular guy, is actually from Britain's landed elite.
"He knows ... this ... upper class, 'posh bloke on a horse' is bad news for him," Bell says.
Sheila Gunn, Major's former press secretary, says this is a perfect story for Britain.
"There's two things that seem to obsess the British, even now — and that is class and animals," Gunn says.
Her advice to Conservative Party operatives: Impose radio silence, do everything possible to starve the story of oxygen.
British satirists say that's not likely.
They say the scandal — dubbed "Horsegate" — could run longer than John Major's underpants did.
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