HALTOM CITY, Texas -- Cowboy Colby Caudle always keeps his rope nearby.
"Twenty-four seven," he said, laughing. "Anywhere I go, it goes, basically."
Colby couldn't believe how he was called to use it last Friday night.
The 17-year-old competitive roper was on a ride-along with Haltom City Police when they got a call about a miniature pony on the lam.
"I said, 'Alright, stop by the station, I have a rope inside my truck,'" Caudle said.
For 18 minutes, the pony put the "dash" in "dash cam video." It was sprinting like the Kentucky Derby, evading the teenager's attempts to lasso him.
"Never in my mind did I think, 'I'm going to be chasing a miniature pony for about two miles,'" Caudle said. "It's a lot easier to rope horseback than it is out of a Tahoe while you’re hitting the cop lights."
"It's hilarious to me," said Sgt. Eric Peters, who saw the dash camera video Monday. "I've never seen anything like that."
Peters said it's a lesson for this young man, who's interested in law enforcement, to expect the unexpected.
"The funniest part to me was him hanging out of the window trying to lasso the horse as he's going down the road," Peters said.
Eventually, the little guy dead-ended into a group of onlookers. Colby walked out, roped the pony and waited for the owners to arrive.
Police say the pony’s owner showed up shortly after it was caught. As for Colby, he says the entire strange experience only made him want to be a police officer that much more.
"I told them they should hire a mounted patrol unit, that way I could run in that—that'd be perfect," he laughed.
He certainly has the experience to back it up.