The trotting horse Simmerl will not be forgotten in Straubing. When it was about to be sold, it prevented this by starting to hatch terribly. It’s a shame that a clever pub hangover didn’t have this tactic on the radar.
It is very enjoyable to visit the venerable trotting track in Straubing. The audience is original, the sausages are spicy, and the stakes are affordable for all guests. And somehow the memory of the trotting horse Simmerl still hovers over it all, which in the 1960s put every footballer in the shade in terms of fame. One day Simmerl, who was bred by Heinrich Berger in Großenpinning in the Straubing-Bogen district, was to be sold to Munich. His friends shouted after him sadly: “Simmerl, now you have to have it!” And the stallion obeyed. The buyer immediately complained about the lame horse, because Simmerl was miserable. So Heinrich Berger bought the trotter back – and he thanked him for it by bringing in prize money of 700,000 marks.
At that time there was a tomcat who was also homesick, but chose a different tactic than Simmerl, who lived in the Gasthof zur Post in Neufraunhofen near Landshut. The cat’s name was sneakers because it was black and had white paws. Gripped by recklessness, he hopped once onto the back of a beer truck that was just delivering barrels. When the side wall was closed again, no one noticed that Sneaker had made himself comfortable behind some gears. Three days later, the local paper revealed that a black cat with white paws had joined a group of pilgrims on their way to Altötting. However, all the intercessions addressed to the Black Madonna were no longer of any use, and the Sneaker was lost. His best comrade, the German shepherd Werner, was inconsolable too, as he now had to go to the bakery on his own. Every morning the bread basket was shoved into his mouth, whereupon he and Sneaker set off and returned amicably with rolls and rolls.
Wherever humans and animals meet at eye level, animals like to adopt human quirks. Similar to the clever Simmerl, as the village chronicle of Kapfing notes, it employed an ox that did not want to be sold at the cattle market. Every time he was driven towards Landshut, he began to limp heavily in the middle, until he was forced back into the stable. Unfortunately, Kater Turnschuh did not have this tactic on his radar: in danger and in dire straits, limping is the top priority.