Two men arrested in Austin for DUI -- on a horse and mule

Two men were recently arrested in downtown Austin for DUI -- on a horse and a mule.

KVUE reports that Jose Rios, 33, and sidekick, Samuel Olivo, Jr., 48, were riding down 6th Street on a horse named Big Red and a mule named Mula, inviting people in bars to come out and take pictures with them.

"In the City of Austin it is legal to ride a horse on a public street," police Commander Jason Dusterhoft tells KVUE. "What we were obviously concerned about is them being intoxicated, inviting people out into the street causing a danger, causing a danger to themselves, the public, the horses."

KXAN reports that the charges were later reduced to public intoxication.

Update at 9:48 a.m. ET: The Austin American-Statesman quotes Olivo today as saying that he and Rios were celebrating Olivo's recovery from a riding accident in June in which he broke three ribs and suffered a collapsed lung. He also tells the newspaper that he had had a few drinks on Friday night: "I was drunk." He also says he plans to take his horse back downtown soon. "I'm just not going to drink a drop of liquor," he says.

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)