Social media sites were quickly into their stride posting horse gags following revelations that Rebekah Brooks, the former News International boss, was loaned a retired police horse by the Met, while journalists jockeyed for position to come up with the most original headline.
The Evening Standard was first in the saddle with "Rebekah's gift horse from the Met police", however The Sun then cantered into the lead with the strangely prescient headline "Taken For A Ride" on its front page (even though it was for a different story).
Though the Guardian was more reserved, one journalist couldn't resist squeezing a horse pun into its final paragraph:
Trending under the hashtag #horsegate, Twitter exploded with horse puns. The horse even had its own Twitter account set up and @Rebekah'sHorse was soon galloping on the micro-blogging site with more than 1,000 followers.
Tweeting and retweeting a range of its own brand of horse jokes, the Telegraph couldn't resist cracking a gag of its own on the spoof horse account, saying "the quality of his jokes has left a bit to be desired".
The Mirror reported on the story saying that the #horsegate revelation sees Twitter users "making hay".
There was absolutely no horsing around for the Mail Online, which published the following pithy offering:
Even those at the centre of the phone hacking scandal have been joining in on the fun, with Tom Watson tweeting:
Many social media users tweeted that the age old question of "Why the long face?" is now self-explanatory, inferring that no one would enjoy being loaned to Rebekah Brooks.
Additionally a number of pictures of horses with long ginger hair have begun to circulate on Twitter.
The BBC almost put an end to the fun with news that the horse loaned to Rebekah Brooks has since "died of natural causes".
Who won the race for the best headline? The Huff Post UK, of course, with “Bobby Horse”… but only by a nose.
Check out some of the best Twitter jokes below.