US Vice President Mike Pence claims a champion racehorse bit him so hard he almost collapsed - but the farm manager has bit back at the allegations.
Pence met Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at racehorse-breeding company Coolmore's stud farm in Kentucky farm last year.
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It was an encounter some billed as the 'VP Meets AP', and at a policy retreat for House Republicans in Baltimore earlier this week, Pence detailed what occurred.
He told the audience that after he was invited to reach for the reins, he was given a severely painful bite.
"American Pharoah bit me so hard on the arm I almost collapsed," Pence said to laughter.
"I just gritted my teeth and smiled because you know what, in our line of work, you're going to get bit sometimes, but you keep fighting forward. And we did."
But Dermot Ryan, the America manager for Coolmore, has cast doubt on Pence's account.
"If he gave someone a nasty bite, I'd know it," he told the McClatchy news group, adding that this would be unexpected behaviour from such a "sweet" horse.
However a spokesperson for Kentucky Representative Andy Barr, who campaigned with Pence, said the Vice President had shown off the bite marks on Air Force Two after the alleged incident.
Newshub.
